Action Alert

Urge your senators to demand that the Senate approve the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act!

WASHINGTON (Feb. 3, 2003)--In his State of the Union message, President Bush urged Congress to send him the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act so that he can sign it into law. (See story, page one.)

The House of Representatives is expected to pass the bill by a wide margin. But it faces stiff resistance in the Senate, where close votes are expected on crippling amendments.

Pro-abortion senators might also filibuster the bill, which would force the pro-life side to muster 60 votes to "invoke cloture."

Senators--including those who often vote pro-abortion--must hear immediately from many constituents, demanding approval of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act without weakening amendments.

How to Send Your Message

Regular U.S. mail to Capitol Hill is often delayed for security reasons. We encourage you to use e-mail, faxes, and phone calls.

Please visit the NRLC Legislative Action Center at www.nrlc.org and send a free e-mail to both of your two U.S. senators, urging them to oppose all weakening amendments and to send the bill to President Bush for his signature.

Once you have entered your zip code or state name, the NRLC Legislative Action Center will provide a profile of your senators which will include the phone numbers of their Washington and in-state offices (often including fax numbers).

You can also reach the Washington office of any senator through the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121--however, this general number is sometimes jammed up during major legislative activity.

In addition, letters can be sent by regular mail to any senator at U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510. But because of security concerns, there are sometimes considerable delays in delivery and counting of regular mail. Therefore, e-mail, faxes, and phone calls are highly recommended.

Your message to senators should be along these lines:

President Bush has called on the Senate to pass the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, sponsored by Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). Please support this bill. I am strongly opposed to the brutal partial-birth abortion procedure. According to a January Gallup poll, 70 percent of Americans believe that partial-birth abortion should be banned.

I urge you not to support any procedural obstruction of this legislation, and to oppose all weakening amendments. I am especially opposed to the "phony ban" substitute amendment that has been offered in the past by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Il.) and others.

The Durbin Amendment would allow partial-birth abortions without restriction before a baby has provably reached the point of "viability," and even after "viability" based on abortionists' assertions that the mother is at any degree of "risk" of health problems. This amendment is a complete sham, which would allow abortionists to perform partial-birth abortions even on babies who could easily survive independently of their mothers.

Please also take these steps:

* Urge your fellow citizens to communicate with the senators, too. Utilize newsletters, church bulletins, call-in radio shows, and other means to alert pro-life citizens to this crucial fight.

* Write letters or op-ed essays for local newspapers, highlighting the critical votes that senators will soon cast.

* If you obtain information on any senator's position (including information reported in the press), please forward it to NRLC by e-mail to Legfederal@aol.com (preferred), or by fax to (202) 347-3668, or by regular mail to NRLC, Federal Legislation, 512-10th Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C. 20004-1401.

Resources

For further documentation on partial-birth abortion, visit the NRLC website archive at www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/index.html.

A good primer on the issue is the testimony NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson presented to a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and the U.S. House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee in March 1997, which contains footnoted citations to some of the more thorough journalistic examinations of the issue (including interviews with partial-birth abortionists) and to various primary documents. The testimony is posted at:

www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/test.html.

The eight-page instruction paper on how to perform a partial-birth abortion that began the whole partial-birth abortion debate, written by an abortionist in 1992, is posted on a congressional website: www.house.gov/burton/RSC/haskellinstructional.pdf