WASHINGTON The Bush administration wants to classify a fetus as an "unborn child" for purposes of prenatal care under a plan being considered at the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, Reuters reported on Friday.

The draft of a letter obtained by Reuters and addressed "Dear state health official," suggests classifying a fetus as a "targeted low-income child" to open the way to get money for health care, including prenatal care and delivery, through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

One feminist leader saw the letter's language as the first step in a "paper trail" meant to establish the rights of fetuses as human beings in an attempt to eventually overturn the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that established a woman's constitutional right to abortion.

Health Secretary Tommy Thompson "will be proposing that for purposes of the SCHIP program, an unborn child may be considered a targeted low-income child by the state and therefore eligible for SCHIP if other applicable state eligibility requirements are met," the letter said.

Department spokesman Bill Pierce said the draft originated in Thompson's office as a way to fill gaps in prenatal care.

"This is all very consistent with what the secretary has said in terms of wanting to increase the flexibility that states have to address issues of the uninsured or underinsured," Pierce said in a telephone interview.

Defending the Bush administration proposal to make fetuses eligible for government health care, Thompson at a Houston news conference said: "What better way to help a young baby than to have prenatal care before the baby is born? And that's what this is all about -- to give them the health coverage to take care of the mother and child."

"I don't know why anybody would be opposed to that. Can you imagine anybody that would be opposed to giving prenatal care to an unborn poor child, to give that poor child, especially a minority, a chance to enter this world healthy and ready to develop?" he added.

Pierce said the change mentioned in the letter was aimed specifically at those who were too old to qualify for care under SCHIP, or had too high an income to get care under Medicaid, which offers health coverage for the poor.

The letter said states would not be required to offer this coverage, but noted, "It is well established that access to prenatal care can improve health outcomes over a child's life."

Feminist majority president Eleanor Smeal questioned the letter's presumed separation of the fetus from the pregnant woman.

"The whole idea is they're trying to establish a legal paper trail for the unborn child," Smeal said by telephone. "And reality is, you've got to give prenatal aid to pregnant women. They might want to pretend that an embryo can speak and think and all that, but that's not the case."

Smeal said abortion opponents "keep trying to tinker with words to establish a record for what we think will be their case to reverse Roe vs. Wade."

Both President George W. Bush and Thompson oppose abortion under most circumstances.