The Doctors Take On Bush

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There are practical considerations as well. Although the gag rule includes an exception for life-threatening pregnancies -- in which case women can be referred for "emergency care" -- it is not at all clear what doctors are supposed to tell women with diabetes, congenital heart disease or multiple sclerosis. These illnesses could make pregnancy risky, but are not necessarily life threatening. If a woman with AIDS or Tay-Sachs disease is in danger of bearing an abnormal child, a doctor who did not give her that information and describe all her options could be liable for malpractice or "wrongful life." In June a Massachusetts woman infected with German measles while pregnant was awarded $1.3 million because her doctor failed to test adequately for the disease and then did not give her information about either her child's risk of serious malformation or her option to terminate the pregnancy.

President Bush seems to be hearing the doctors' complaints. After initially threatening to slam a fast veto on any attempt to reverse the gag rule, the Administration has started backpedaling. Faced with reports from Bush's own pollsters that his abortion policies were starting to cost him support among Republican and independent women voters, the Administration indicated late last month that it was rethinking its position on the gag rule.

Would a victory for the doctors signal a new era of medical activism? Probably not. It is possible that the coalition whipped up to defeat the gag rule could strengthen efforts to revise the Medicare schedule or liberalize fetal-tissue research, but neither of those issues generates the same kind of deep emotions. Most doctors would prefer to leave politics to the politicians, if they would just leave medical decisions to physicians and their patients.