New Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
Receives Strong Bipartisan Vote

July 25, 2002—Washington, DC: With another lopsided bipartisan majority, the House of Representatives approved a rewritten bill that bans partial-birth abortions.

The House voted 274-151 for the partial-birth abortion prohibition and turned back 187-241 an effort by pro-abortion Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) to send the bill back to committee and add a health exception that would result in a ban on no partial-birth abortions.

Nine Republicans voted against the ban and 65 Democrats voted for it. The pro-abortion motion to recommit to change the bill to a phony ban had 19 Republicans voting for it and 41 Democrats voting against it.

"We commend Congress for persevering in this long fight to protect the unborn from a monstrous death," said the Family Research Council in a statement.

President Bush supports trhe ban. He said in a statement it strongly supports the bill, saying it is ``morally imperative and constitutionally permissible to prohibit this very abhorrent form of abortion.''

However, the bill is unlikely to see the light of day in the Senate thanks to pro-abortion Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD).

Daschle, who previously voted for the ban, signaled he would not support the bill that passed in the House, and is not likely to make any effort to find space on the legislative calendar to take it up in the Senate.

"I voted for it last time because I felt the only way to resolve this matter was to resolve it in the courts," Daschle told reporters Wednesday. "And it was resolved in the courts the first time. I'm told that this may be a similar issue in that it may not be in keeping with court interpretation of the rights of a woman."

"If there was a clean up-and-down vote on the bill passed by the House, the Senate would approve it," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). "If the ban on partial-birth abortion does not reach President Bush for his signature, the blame will rest squarely on the Senate Democratic leadership."

However, some pro-life members of the Senate may work to force the issue.

"We do think that partial-birth abortion is a procedure that should not be allowed to stand," pro-life Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) said Wednesday.

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), encouraged the House to pass the ban saying, "I believe it's time for a serious reality check and a serious compassion check."

Smith discussed an unsuccessful partial-birth abortion performed by convicted abortion practitioner John Biskind in 1998. The baby survived the botched abortion procedure and now lives with the scars from the attempted abortion. Biskind was convicted in large part because he misdiagnosed the age of the unborn child.

"The controversy was about the baby's age rather than the violence against the child," Smith explained rather than the "violence against little baby boys and little baby girls."

Abortion advocates continued to claim the bill is unconstitutional, and that elected members of Congress should not interfere in abortion. In discussing the health exception, pro-abortion Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) again made the erroneous claim that the ban does not protect the life of the mother. A life exception has always been a part of the bill.

"Partial-birth abortion is never medically necessary to preserve a woman's health, poses serious risks to women's health and, in fact, is below the requisite standard of medical care," responded Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)

Members who spoke in favor of the partial-birth abortion ban included pro-life members Myrick (R-NC), Barcia (D-MI), Linder (R-GA), Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), Hart (R-PA), Pickering (R-MS), Sullivan (R-OK), Cubin (R-WY), Forbes (R-VA), Pitts (R-PA), Barr (R-GA), Ryun (R-KS), Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Miller (R-FL), and Mark Foley (R-FL), who has a mixed record on abortion.

Members who spoke against the ban incuded: Jackson Lee (D-TX), Edwards (D-TX), Scott (D-VA), Slaughter (D-NY), Maloney (D-NY), Nadler (D-NY), Woolsley (D-CA), Conyers (D-MI), Lofgren (D-CA), Solis (D-CA), DeGette (D-CO), Davis (D-IL), Johnson (R-CT), Carson (D-IN), Waters (D-CA), Norton (D-DC), Hoyer (D-MD) and Baldwin (D-WI).

To see how your member voted on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, go to http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2002&rollnumber=343

To see how your member voted on the pro-abortion attempt to add a health exception, go to http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2002&rollnumber=342