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Senate Passes Bill Limiting Abortion
Senate Passes Bill Limiting Abortion
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 13, 2003; 11:55 AM
The Senate today overwhelmingly approved legislation to ban what critics describe as "partial birth" abortions, putting the measure on track for enactment -- and a court test -- after an eight-year struggle between opposing camps in the broader fight over abortion restrictions.
The vote was 64-33, with 16 Democrats joining 48 Republicans in support of the bill and 29 Democrats, three Republicans and one independent opposing it.
President Bush, who had made passage of the measure one of his top legislative priorities, hailed the Senate action. "Partial birth abortion is an abhorrent procedure that offends human dignity. . . . Today's action is an important step toward building a culture of life in America," he said in a statement.
House passage is considered a virtual certainty. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's constitution subcommittee, said the subcommittee will take up the bill by the end of the month and predicted the House will act on it by the end of April.
But abortion rights forces have vowed to challenge the abortion restriction in federal court, arguing that, despite some changes by its sponsors, it still fails to address faults that the Supreme Court found three years ago in a Nebraska law outlawing the procedure.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), seeks to bar doctors from committing an "overt act" to kill a partially delivered fetus. It would cover situations where "the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother."
The bill's opponents contend it still runs afoul of the Supreme Court ruling on several grounds, including the lack of provisions to protect a woman's health. Santorum argued that the bill is now constitutional and says it addresses the health issue by declaring that the procedure is never necessary for health reasons.
Thirty-one states have passed statutes banning the procedure, but many have not taken effect because of injunctions, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.
Both the Senate and House have approved a ban on the controversial procedure in the past, but it was either vetoed by President Clinton or sidetracked because of the ruling in the Nebraska case.
Win or lose in the courts, the prospect of congressional enactment amounts to a political victory for anti-abortion forces, who concentrated their fire on the partial-birth procedure in recent years as their best target to chip away at abortion rights asserted in the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy. They cited it as an especially gruesome procedure, a strategy that proved effective in gaining the votes of some senators who regard themselves as abortion rights supporters.
In the only victory for abortion rights forces during three days of debate on the measure, the Senate approved a non-binding resolution endorsing the Roe decision and urging that it not be overturned. Santorum predicted that Roe language will be dropped from the final version of the bill.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 13, 2003; 11:55 AM
The Senate today overwhelmingly approved legislation to ban what critics describe as "partial birth" abortions, putting the measure on track for enactment -- and a court test -- after an eight-year struggle between opposing camps in the broader fight over abortion restrictions.
The vote was 64-33, with 16 Democrats joining 48 Republicans in support of the bill and 29 Democrats, three Republicans and one independent opposing it.
President Bush, who had made passage of the measure one of his top legislative priorities, hailed the Senate action. "Partial birth abortion is an abhorrent procedure that offends human dignity. . . . Today's action is an important step toward building a culture of life in America," he said in a statement.
House passage is considered a virtual certainty. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's constitution subcommittee, said the subcommittee will take up the bill by the end of the month and predicted the House will act on it by the end of April.
But abortion rights forces have vowed to challenge the abortion restriction in federal court, arguing that, despite some changes by its sponsors, it still fails to address faults that the Supreme Court found three years ago in a Nebraska law outlawing the procedure.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), seeks to bar doctors from committing an "overt act" to kill a partially delivered fetus. It would cover situations where "the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother."
The bill's opponents contend it still runs afoul of the Supreme Court ruling on several grounds, including the lack of provisions to protect a woman's health. Santorum argued that the bill is now constitutional and says it addresses the health issue by declaring that the procedure is never necessary for health reasons.
Thirty-one states have passed statutes banning the procedure, but many have not taken effect because of injunctions, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.
Both the Senate and House have approved a ban on the controversial procedure in the past, but it was either vetoed by President Clinton or sidetracked because of the ruling in the Nebraska case.
Win or lose in the courts, the prospect of congressional enactment amounts to a political victory for anti-abortion forces, who concentrated their fire on the partial-birth procedure in recent years as their best target to chip away at abortion rights asserted in the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy. They cited it as an especially gruesome procedure, a strategy that proved effective in gaining the votes of some senators who regard themselves as abortion rights supporters.
In the only victory for abortion rights forces during three days of debate on the measure, the Senate approved a non-binding resolution endorsing the Roe decision and urging that it not be overturned. Santorum predicted that Roe language will be dropped from the final version of the bill.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
If anything, this crap will impede the doctor's ability to save a woman's life. Although I'm not aware of the specifics of this yet. This bill is only a stepping stone to the eventual outlaw of abortion.
There's more to come.
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