WASHINGTON, March 13, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - By a vote of 64-33, the U.S. Senate today passed a bill to ban the practice of partial-birth abortion nationwide. The ban, twice vetoed by President Bill Clinton, is strongly supported by President George W. Bush. It now goes to the House of Representatives, which last year approved the ban by a nearly two-to-one margin.

While pro-life forces in the Senate fought off attempts to cripple the bill by amendments that would render it useless, abortion advocates were able to narrowly (52-46) include a non-binding amendment expressing support for the pro-abortion Supreme Court ruling Roe v Wade. Political observers have suggested that the House may remove the amendment before passing the measure, which will result in House-Senate negotiations to come up with a final version to go on to the President for his signature.

During this week's debate in the Senate, opponents of the ban argued that the bill violates two U.S. Supreme Court rulings -- Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion on demand, and Stenberg v. Carhart, a 2000 decision in which five justices held that Roe v. Wade covers even partial-birth abortions. Moreover abortion advocates vowed to take the new law to court once signed.

"President Bush, 70 percent of the public, 64 senators, and four Supreme Court justices say there is no constitutional right to deliver most of a living baby and then puncture her head with a scissors," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). "But five Supreme Court justices said that partial-birth abortion is protected by Roe v. Wade, and 33 senators agreed. We hope that by the time this ban reaches the Supreme Court, at least five justices will be willing to reject such extremism in defense of abortion."

The bill (S. 3) legally defines a partial-birth abortion as any abortion in which the baby is delivered "past the navel . . . outside the body of the mother" before being killed. It is well documented that partial-birth abortions are performed by the thousands, mostly on healthy babies of healthy mothers in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy, and sometimes even later. The bill would allow the method if it was ever necessary to save a mother's life.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/mar/03031301.html
For more information see the NRLC website at:
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/index.html