July 2003

SENATE DEMOCRATS OBSTRUCT PROGRESS ON UVVA

Tracy Marciniak (shown here in a 2001 photo) testified at a July 8 hearing in favor of the Unborn Victims of Violence At. Zachariah, her unborn son, was killed when Marciniak was brutally assaulted during her ninth month of pregnancy.

Senate Republican Leadership Seeks Action on Unborn Victims of Violence Act, But Democrats Resist

At a July 8 hearing before U.S. House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, testifying were (L to R): Tracy Marciniak, surviving mother from Wisconsin; Juley Fulcher of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (opposing the bill); Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life; and Gerald Bradley, University of Notre Dame School of Law. On display at the right is a photograph of Mrs. Marciniak holding the body of her son Zachariah, an unborn victim of violence. NRLC photo by Douglas Johnson

WASHINGTON (July 12, 2003) - - Senate Democratic leaders have been obstructing progress of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA, S. 1019) through behind-the-scenes delaying tactics - - even as Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle has been publicly insisting that he wants the Senate to consider the legislation "expeditiously."

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From the President

Wanda Franz, Ph.D.

MORE SIGNS OF A PRO-LIFE SHIFT IN PUBLIC OPINION

The support for abortion on demand continues to erode. According to data collected by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the number of abortions peaked in 1990 at about 1.6 million. A series of opinion polls by the Gallup Organization shows that the percentage of those favoring abortion to be "legal under any circumstances" first crossed the 30% mark (31%) in the same year. Only 12% of those polled wanted to make abortion "illegal in all circumstances." After 1990 the number of abortions per year began a steady decline, but the percentage of those favoring unrestricted abortion did not decline until 1996. From 1991 to 1995 approval of unrestricted abortion averaged 32.4% in ten polls. And the percentage of those wanting all abortions to be illegal in all cases averaged 14.1%.

In July 1996, around the time NRLC's campaign to ban partial-birth abortions gained momentum, support for unrestricted abortion suddenly dropped to about 25%. Another 13% wanted abortion to be "legal in most circumstances"; 43% wanted it to be "legal only in a few circumstances"; and 15% wanted abortion to be "illegal in all circumstances" (up from 12% in September 1995).