President Declines to Meet With Anti-Abortion Pair : Presidency: Operation Rescue leaders sought to discuss sentences of Wichita protesters. Bush urges demonstrators to ‘stay within the law.’

KENNEBUNKPORT, Me. —  President Bush will not interrupt his August vacation to meet with two leaders of Operation Rescue, the militant group that has been trying for the last month to block the entrances to abortion clinics in Wichita, Kan., he said Sunday.

“I’m trying to get a vacation here,” the President said.

The two leaders, Randall Terry, founder of the group, and the Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, one of its organizers, said at a news conference near the President’s seaside vacation home that they are disappointed but that they still hope to meet with him in Washington.

“That doesn’t mean that we won’t get to meet with him ever,” Terry said.

Bush, speaking with reporters before attending worship services at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church near his vacation home, said: “We’ve had requests to meet with people from all over, all different causes. I’m sure they understand.”

The President said that if he did meet with the two, he would tell them: “‘Hey, please abide with the law; don’t violate a judge’s order, and stay within the law.’ And I’d say that to ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) when they come up here or to any other demonstrators.”

The subject of demonstrations has been one on which Bush has commented frequently in recent days. A group representing organized labor paraded calmly past his house Friday to protest his decision not to support an emergency extension of unemployment benefits. ACT-UP plans a demonstration in Kennebunkport on Sept. 1.

The President said he is not going to have “any meetings here--I’m trying to avoid that.”

Indeed, he has been trying to conduct only the barest minimum of business here. He spoke Sunday afternoon for about half an hour in a satellite hookup with the summer meeting of the National Governors’ Assn., in Seattle. Later during his vacation he will meet with the prime ministers of Britain and Canada. Their visits to the Bush compound at Walkers Point will be for both social and business reasons.

And, Bush said that he is having “some of our people from Washington up here in the next few days,” for policy discussions. White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu has made several visits to Kennebunkport from his home in New Hampshire.

The Operation Rescue leaders said here Sunday that they had hoped Bush would oppose the stiff sentences meted out to anti-abortion protesters arrested in Wichita, who have been charged with violating a federal court order. More than 2,000 demonstrators have been arrested since the protests began on July 15.

On Saturday, Bush complained about “excessive” protests and was asked why he had not spoken out about the Wichita case. He replied: “I’ve been perfectly prepared to say all along . . . that I disapprove of breaking the law.”

“I don’t think it helps the cause, whether the cause is anti-abortion or pro-abortion, or whether it’s AIDS, whatever it is. And so what I’m saying is the American people get turned off by the excesses, the denial of the rights of others, for example.” And he added:

“I disapprove of throwing blood. I don’t like interrupting people’s speeches. I think that’s probably protected under the First Amendment, but I think it hurts the cause, whatever the cause is. I don’t think people like just plain rudeness.”