During the Clinton administration the Partial-Birth Abortion Act, a bill that would make it illegal in all of

the United States for a partial-birth abortion to be performed, caused major debate throughout the
House of Representatives and the Senate; recently different versions of the bill had been passed through
the both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In prior years Clinton had vetoed similar bills to
ban partial-birth abortions.

The House and Senate have passed somewhat different versions of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (S-
1692), sponsored by Congressman Charles Canady (R-Fl.) and Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). This bill
would place a national ban on partial-birth abortions.

President Clinton successfully vetoed similar bills in 1996 and 1998. When the Senate approved S.1692
last October, it was by a margin two votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

The congressional bills are similar to a Nebraska law that was struck down by a five-justice majority of
the U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 in the case of Stenberg v. carhart. After carefully examining that
ruling, the leading sponsors of the bill decided that it would be more productive to focus on other pro-
life bills for the remainder of this congressional session. (National Right to Life News, August 2000)

Partial-Birth Abortion is used after twenty weeks of pregnancy. The doctor pulls the baby out of the
mother with forceps feet first and stops when the only thing remaining inside the mother is the baby’s
head. The doctor then takes a pair of scissors and inserts them into the back of the neck of the child,
spreads them apart and then proceeds to suction the brain of the child out of it’s head. The child is now
no longer living and can be disposed of. Under current legislation the only factor that separates partial-
birth abortion from homicide is the fact that the child’s head remains inside the mother while the
procedure is performed.

The Partial-Birth Abortion Act is not a bill to make abortion illegal just partial-birth abortions. Those who
support this bill in the Senate are pro-life, whil...

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...ter, June 2001)

The laws were overturned by the United States Court of Appeals in Illinois and Wisconsin following the
Supreme Court’s lead. United States District Judge Arthur Tarnow overturned the ban in Michigan.

Planned Parenthood had challenged the laws in all three states and was said to be gratified by the
decisions. “We are pleased with these rulings because they protect women’s health from being
sacrificed to a dishonest campaign to demonize a safe and medically necessary procedure.” Planned
Parenthood continued," And we are reminded again, as all Americans should be, of the importance of a
fair-minded and independent federal judiciary.”

Another problem with the ban on partial-birth abortions is what to do in the case of a health threat
involving the mother. If a pregnant women faces death through the birth of her child do we save the
mother or the child? Another problematic example is if the mother already has children, and partial-
birth abortions are illegal, the child could potentially be born and the mother could pass leaving all of
her children to grow up without a mother.

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