WASHINGTON — States may classify a developing fetus as an "unborn child" eligible for government health care, the Bush administration said Thursday, giving low-income women access to prenatal care and bolstering the arguments of abortion opponents. The plan will make a fetus eligible for health care under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Aimed at children, the program typically does not cover parents or pregnant women. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson cited well-established data on the importance of prenatal care in explaining the proposal. "Prenatal care for women and their babies is a crucial part of the medical care every person should have through the course of their life cycle," Thompson said in a statement yesterday. "Prenatal services can be a vital, lifelong determinant of health, and we should do everything we can to make this care available for all pregnant women." States, which administer CHIP, would have the option of including fetuses in their programs. Doing so would make the mother eligible for prenatal and delivery care. Abortion-rights supporters complain that there are other ways to include coverage for pregnant women in the health-insurance program. They said the Bush administration's action is a backdoor attempt to establish the fetus as a person with legal standing, which could make criminalizing abortion much easier. "If they're interested in covering pregnant women, why don't they talk about pregnant women?" asked Laurie Rubiner of the National Partnership for Women and Families. "I just have to believe their hidden agenda is to extend personhood to a fetus." The plan "sets legal precedent on its head," Rubiner said. "It's not a surprise. It's something, unfortunately, I would have anticipated from this administration," said Francesca Cantarini, western Pennsylvania field director for the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. "I think basically this is just another step making it easier to criminalize abortion. Obviously, the administration has shown it's anti-choice." Anti-abortion advocates yesterday said they are pleased with the decision. "It's very welcome," said Helen Cindrich, executive director of People Concerned for the Unborn Child, a Brookline-based organization representing 5,000 members in 15 western Pennsylvania counties. "They have never been anything but unborn babies. It's only the abortionists who have tried to call them something else. It's like, 'Why is this news?' But we're very glad for the attention it's getting," Cindrich said. "We're moving in the right direction. We've been off track for a long time, and this is helping us get the wheels back on track." States already may cover pregnant women under the health program, though they must obtain get specific permission from Health and Human Services because the health-insurance program is designed for children, not adults. Thompson promoted the waivers yesterday as an excellent way of expanding health coverage to people without insurance. He regularly boasts about speeding the time it takes for them to be approved by federal officials. But in his statement yesterday, he said automatically including the fetus is the quickest way to get prenatal services to the most women. The waiver process "would take longer than extending it this way," said HHS spokesman Campbell Gardett. Thompson said he also supports legislation pending in the Senate that would allow states to add pregnant women to CHIP automatically — much as poor pregnant women are eligible for Medicaid. Administration officials said last summer that they were considering the policy change. At the time, the National Governors Association cautioned HHS that although some states would embrace the new option and some would immediately reject it, other states would face divisive battles over whether to go along. The new policy will not take effect until after it is published in the Federal Register and after HHS considers public comments.

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