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This is
a press release from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) in
Washington, D.C., issued Wednesday, June 4, 2003, at 9 pm EDT. For
further information, call 202-626-8820, send e-mail to Legfederal@aol.com,
or visit the NRLC website section on partial-birth abortion at http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/index.html
U.S.
HOUSE JOINS SENATE IN APPROVING BAN ON PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION,
SUPPORTED BY 70% OF PUBLIC -- BUT WILL FIVE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES AGREE?
WASHINGTON (June 4, 2003) -– The U.S. House of Representatives, by a
two-thirds vote (282-139), today joined the Senate in approving a bill to
ban partial-birth abortions.
The bill (H.R. 760) legally defines a partial-birth abortion as any abortion
in which the baby is delivered alive until "in the case of breech
presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body
of the mother," or if the baby is delivered head first, "the
entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother," before being
killed. (H.R. 760, page 17, posted here:
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/PBABA%20HR%20760.pdf
)
H.R. 760 would allow the method if it was ever necessary to save a mother's
life.
During today's debate, opponents of the ban argued that the bill violates
two U.S. Supreme Court rulings -- Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that
legalized abortion on demand, and Stenberg v. Carhart, a 2000 decision in
which five justices held that Roe v. Wade covers even partial-birth
abortions.
"Two-thirds of Congress, 70 percent of the public, and four Supreme
Court justices say there is no constitutional right to deliver most of a
living baby and then puncture her head with a scissors," said Douglas
Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC),
which has led the fight for the bill for the past eight years.
"But five Supreme Court justices have said that the right of
abortionists to perform partial-birth abortions is guaranteed by Roe v.
Wade. We hope that by the time this ban reaches the Supreme Court, at
least five justices will be willing to reject such extremism."
The ban, twice vetoed by President Bill Clinton, is strongly supported by
President George W. Bush. The White House today issued a
statement in support of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and in
opposition to weakening amendments (http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/WHstatement060403.html).
A January Gallup poll found that 70% of the public favors the ban.
Today, the House overwhelmingly rejected, 133-287, a competing bill
("substitute amendment") offered by the chair of the Congressional
Pro-Choice Caucus, Rep. Jim Greenwood (R-Pa.), and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
While marketed as a "ban" on "late-term" abortions,
Hoyer and Greenwood conceded that their measure would allow abortions even
during the final three months of pregnancy for "mental health."
It is well documented that partial-birth abortions are performed by the
thousands, mostly on healthy babies of healthy mothers in the fifth and
sixth months of pregnancy, and sometimes even later. The New York
Times, among others, has reported that this is conceded even by Ron
Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion
Providers -- a trade association of abortion providers: "In the
vast majority of cases, the procedure is performed on a healthy mother with
a healthy fetus that is 20 weeks or more along, Fitzsimmons said."
(See http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/PBA%20NYT%20lied.pdf
and other documentation at http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/index.html
For details on the current congressional situation, recently reported
statistics on partial-birth abortion, and other up-to-date information, see
the memo "Recent
Developments on Partial-Birth Abortion," on the NRLC website at http://www.nrlc.org.
The website also contains extensive documentation on all disputed issues
surrounding partial-birth abortion, the results of reports on the issue by
investigative journalists, and expert-certified color illustrations of the
method, at http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/index.html
On March 13, the U.S. Senate approved its version of the Partial-Birth
Abortion Ban Act (S. 3) by a vote of 64-33. The Senate attached the
Harkin Amendment, an endorsement of Roe v. Wade, to its version of the bill,
and pro-life forces want to see that amendment removed in an upcoming
House-Senate conference committee. After the conference committee
produces a final version of the bill, it must be approved by both houses
before it is sent to President Bush for his signature. These final
steps in the legislative process could take some weeks.
Following passage of the bill
on June 4, President Bush issued the following statement: "I applaud the
House for passing legislation banning partial-birth abortions. Passage of
this important legislation is a shared priority that will help build a
culture of life in America. I urge Congress to quickly resolve any
differences and send me the final bill as soon as possible so that I can
sign it into law." |
