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House OKs ban on partial-birth abortion

By Amy Fagan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 5, 2003
[excerpt only]

A ban on partial-birth abortion is well on its way to becoming law, after the House approved it late yesterday on a 282-139 vote.

"After eight long years, Congress will finally send the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act to a president willing to sign it," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican.

"The debate over the rights of the unborn will continue, and new battles will be fought. But in the meantime, the American people will take this one stand ... on behalf of the innocent," he said.

Voting for the bill were 220 Republicans and 62 Democrats. Voting against it were 133 Democrats, five Republicans and the chamber's lone independent. Three Republican and 10 Democratic lawmakers did not vote.

Congress has twice passed a ban on partial-birth abortion, but both measures were vetoed by President Clinton, and although the House overrode the vetoes, the Senate did not.

In a statement after the vote last night, President Bush called it "a shared priority that will help build a culture of life in America."

...A Gallup poll in January found that 70 percent of the public favors a ban on the procedure.

The key difference between the nearly identical House and Senate partial-birth-abortion-ban bills is that the Senate adopted language on the floor reaffirming the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

The House bill contains no such language, and Republicans said this language will be removed in conference.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503
June 4, 2003

STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY
(THIS STATEMENT HAS BEEN COORDINATED BY OMB WITH THE CONCERNED AGENCIES.)

H.R. 760 - Partial-Birth Abortion Ban of 2003
(Rep. Chabot (R) OH and 161 cosponsors)

The Administration strongly supports enactment of H.R. 760, which would ban an abhorrent procedure commonly known as partial-birth abortion. The bill is narrowly tailored and exempts those procedures necessary to save the life of the mother.

Partial-birth abortion is a procedure that is not accepted by the medical community. Approximately 30 States have attempted to ban it. The Administration strongly believes that enactment of H.R. 760 is both morally imperative and constitutionally permissible.

The Administration strongly opposes any amendment to the bill that would limit its application to a time after the child is determined to be viable, which could allow this procedure to be used as late as the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy. The Administration supports the exception for procedures necessary to save the life of the mother, but strongly opposes any amendments to create additional exceptions because these exceptions may create open-ended loopholes and allow the use of the procedure even in the third trimester.

"The House bill contains no such language, and Republicans said this language will be removed in conference."

Excellent! The house is more representative of the people's will than the senate. Many of the senators should not be representing our representative republic, some should be on Jerry Springer's show and not in the U.S. senate.
America's youth have been dumbed down and the elected senators show the successful results of propaganda oriented mis-education in the government school system.