March 26, 2003
Partial Birth Abortion Ban Works Through House
By Stuart Shepard, Family News in Focus Correspondent

SUMMARY: With a win in the Senate already under their belts, pro-life lawmakers head to the House with a bill banning the partial-birth abortion procedure.

After clearing the major hurdle of the Senate just weeks ago, the move to ban partial-birth abortion now begins a more predictable journey. The U.S. House of Representatives is working through the first steps toward bringing up the bill.

Wendy Wright, senior policy director at Concerned Women for America, said the pathway seems certain.

"We are very confident that the partial-birth abortion ban will pass in the House," Wright said.

Wright said one question is, "By how big a margin will the bill pass?" The difference this time is pro-abortion congressmen do not have the political cover afforded them twice in the past by a certain veto from Bill Clinton. She said the floor debate may
reveal their hearts.

President Bush said he will sign the bill into law, if it reaches his desk. Analysts like Wright, however, say that will be the equivalent of a starting gun.

"Planned Parenthood and other groups have been very vocal that they plan on filing a lawsuit against this bill as soon as the signature is dry," Wright said. "They've actually said the minute it is signed they will be in court."

Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, said the real "question mark" is the Supreme Court of the United States.

"The problem that we have is that five justices on the Supreme Court have said that Roe v. Wade covers even the brutal practice of partial-birth abortion," Johnson said.

Johnson is referring to a ruling in 2000 in which the Court overturned a state ban in Nebraska. The new bill addresses the two major problems cited in that decision, but Johnson said another change is also important.

"It's going to take awhile for this issue to get back up to the Supreme Court, and we're just hopeful by the time it gets there that there will be at least five justices who are willing at least to accept a ban on partial-birth abortions," Johnson said.

The House is not expected to vote on the ban until after the Easter recess. The Senate version contains what Johnson calls an "obnoxious" pro-abortion amendment endorsing Roe v. Wade. He hopes it will be removed when the bill goes to conference committee after House passage.

Abortion groups, meantime, have reportedly been "judge shopping" for a sympathetic court to hear their appeals.

TAKE ACTION:
Please contact your representative and ask him or her to support H.R. 760, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121.

To view details of the act, and for help in contacting your representative, please see the FNinF Legislative Action Center http://capwiz.com/fof/issues/bills/?bill=1468106 

For more information on the controversial procedure, please contact Hawaii Right to Life and we will send you a brochure further explaining the procedure (no graphic pictures).