On October 21, the Senate approved, 64-34, the conference report on the Partial Birth Abortion Ban (S. 3). The House approved the conference report on October 2 (see The Source, 10/3/03).
Sponsored by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), the measure would prohibit a specific abortion procedure performed during the second and third trimesters. S. 3 would make an exception if the life of the pregnant woman is endangered by carrying the pregnancy to term. Physicians who violate the ban would be subject to two years’ imprisonment and/or fines. The bill also contains a number of congressional findings that state “partial-birth abortion is never necessary to preserve the health of a woman, poses serious risks to a woman’s health, and lies outside the standard of medical care.”
Congress considered similar bans during the 104th, 105th, and 106th Congresses. Twice the bans were vetoed by President Clinton. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska law that would have banned “partial-birth abortions” because the law did not include a health exception and because the bill placed an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose due to a broadly worded definition. Last year, the House approved a ban; however, the Senate did not consider the measure (see The Source, 7/26/02).
During consideration of the bill in March (see The Source, 3/14/03), the Senate approved, 52-46, an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) that expressed the sense of the Senate that the decision of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade is appropriate and secures an important constitutional right. The amendment also said that the ruling should not be overturned. On June 4, the House approved its version of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban (H.R. 760), sponsored by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) without the language supporting the Roe v. Wade decision (see The Source, 6/6/03). The conference report on S. 3 also does not include the Roe v. Wade language.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) lauded passage of the conference report and said October 21, 2003 “will go down in history as a pivotal day, where we start to recognize that the child in the womb is a child. The child in the womb is not a piece of property. The child is, indeed, a person with dignity and rights and is entitled to life.”
The lead opponent of the bill, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), disagreed. “…This is a very sad day for the women of America, a very sad day for the families of America, because what is about to happen here is this Senate is about to pass a piece of legislation that for the first time in history bans a medical procedure without making any exception for the health of a woman. This is a radical thing that is about to happen.”
The Partial Birth Abortion Ban now heads to the White House where President Bush has indicated that he will sign it into law.
