Gore Uses Code Words To Deceive Voters About His Record on Partial-Birth Abortion

In the first presidential debate October 3, Vice President Al Gore used misleading language to deceive voters regarding his record on the issue of partial-birth abortion. Gore expressed support for "banning" what he referred to as "partial-birth or so- called late-term abortion," except in cases of acute medical risk. But in reality, the Clinton-Gore Administration has endorsed only legislation that would have no practical effect on partial-birth abortions, and Gore has expressed approval of President Clinton's two vetoes of legislation that would effectively restrict partial-birth abortion.

"Gore was deceptive in suggesting that he favors stringent restrictions on partial-birth abortions, because he and President Clinton have actually killed such bills, and have endorsed only legislation that is entirely meaningless," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee.

In the debate, Gore said, "First of all, on the issue of partial- birth or so-called late-term abortion, I would sign a law banning that procedure, provided that doctors have the ability to save a woman's life or to act if her health is severely at risk." Gore here relied on deceptive code words, "late-term" and " health." Following the lead of pro-abortion advocacy groups such as NARAL, when Gore and Clinton say "late-term" abortions, they really refer only to babies who can be proven to have reached "viability"; that is, a degree of lung development sufficient to permit sustained life outside the womb. It would not be possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, after an abortion, that a given baby had been "viable" until the third trimester. But it is well established that the vast majority of partial-birth abortions are performed on healthy babies of healthy mothers during the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy, not during the third trimester.

[To cite just one authority, in much-publicized interviews in 1997, Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, admitted that he and leaders of other pro-abortion groups were well aware that partial-birth abortions are performed routinely during the fifth and sixth months. "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, Mr. Fitzsimmons said" (New York Times, Feb. 26, 1997, page A11). (Twenty weeks is the halfway point in pregnancy or 4.5 months in layman's terms.)]

The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which Clinton has vetoed twice, would ban these commonplace partial-birth abortions in the fifth and sixth months (unless necessary to save the life of the mother), but the legislation endorsed by the Administration would leave them unaffected. [On the Dec. 15, 1996, edition of Meet the Press, NBC's Tim Russert directly pressed White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta on whether the White House would accept a ban "except for the life of the mother or severe impairment of her health, even in the second trimester?" Panetta replied in the negative.]

Even in the third trimester, Gore insists that abortions (partial-birth and otherwise) must be allowed for "health" reasons and "health" as used here is also a code word. In a May 19, 1997, letter to the Senate, the AMA endorsed the federal bill to ban partial-birth abortion, a bill that contained an exception to save the life of the mother, but no "health" exception.

The AMA said it was supporting the ban because partial-birth abortion was "not medically indicated" and "a procedure we all agree is not good medicine." The letter also noted, "the bill would allow a legitimate exception where the life of the mother was endangered." [The AMA letter is posted on the NRLC web site, www.nrlc.org, under "Federal Legislation: Partial-Birth Abor- tion."] Yet Clinton vetoed the bill, with Gore's approval. The White House endorsed a counterproposal by Sen. Tom Daschle (D- SD) to allow post-viability abortions (partial-birth or otherwise) if a single physician "certifies that the continuation of the pregnancy would threaten the mother's life or risk grievous injury to her physical health." Dr. Warren Hern, the author of a textbook on abortion methods who performs many third- trimester abortions, said this language would permit him to abort "any pregnancy" in the third trimester.

Gore knows from years of experience that few journalists have shown interest in de-coding his verbal smokescreens regarding " late-term" abortions. One not-able exception was Gore's appearance on Meet the Press on February 6, 1992, when Gore was questioned by NBC correspondent Lisa Myers. She said, "Today you are a co- sponsor of the Freedom of Choice Act, which would prohibit states from restricting abortion, even after the fetus can live outside the womb, if the abortion is necessary for the life or the health of the mother. . . . [T]his bill also allows an exception for [third-trimester abortions for] the health of the mother, which the committee report [the official explanation of the bill by its chief congressional supporters] defines as emotional as well as physical health."

Gore did not dispute Myers' characterization, but simply agreed, " Well, I believe that the woman ought to have the right to choose, and I believe that where the mother's life or health is endangered, I believe that alters the circumstances."