In the family planning case, however, the Bush administration has repeated its belief that the 1973 abortion decision Roe v. Wade should be overruled. The case could provide the first signal from David H. Souter, whose nomination to succeed retired justice William J. Brennan Jr. is awaiting Senate approval, on whether he believes the Constitution protects abortion rights.

A number of reasons have been advanced for the shrinking docket, among them: fewer decisions from increasingly conservative appeals courts with which the justices disagree; fewer requests from the government for review; an effort by liberal justices and others to keep cases away from the conservative court; and a change in statutes governing the court's jurisdiction that removed one category of cases from those the justices had been required to hear.

Defending the regulations, the Bush administration says the court has repeatedly stated that the government has no obligation to subsidize abortion. Refusal to pay for abortion counseling is similarly not a "government-created obstacle" to abortion, the administration says. It argues that it does not violate the First Amendment to require those who voluntarily accept federal funds to comply with the conditions of the grant.