NEWS STORY: Religious opponents urge no compromise on late-term abortion ban

c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ As the Senate began Wednesday (May 14) to debate a proposal to ban a controversial late-term abortion procedure, religious opponents of abortion urged lawmakers to stand firm against any efforts to weaken the proposed ban. President Clinton said he would support a Democratic compromise expected to be proposed […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ As the Senate began Wednesday (May 14) to debate a proposal to ban a controversial late-term abortion procedure, religious opponents of abortion urged lawmakers to stand firm against any efforts to weaken the proposed ban.

President Clinton said he would support a Democratic compromise expected to be proposed during the debate.


The ban, which has already passed the House, would bar the use of what opponents call”partial-birth abortion,”and what is medically termed”intact dilation and extraction”(D&E). A similar bill was passed in the last Congress but was vetoed by Clinton because it did not include provisions to protect the health of the mother.

A Senate vote on the ban, proposed by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., is expected sometime before the end of the week. It is expected to pass handily but is still a handful of votes shy of a veto-proof majority.

At least two substitutes _ one sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and a similar measure by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. _ are expected to be introduced before the week is out. The White House has said Clinton could support either of the proposals.

The Daschle proposal, which has drawn widespread interest and is considered the politically feasible alternative to Santorum’s measure, would ban all abortions after a fetus is considered viable _ when it can live outside the womb, usually between 22 weeks and 28 weeks _ but allow exceptions for pregnancies that threaten the life of the mother or might cause her”grievous health”problems.

According to Centers for Disease Control figures, about 1 percent _ or 16,450 _ of all abortions in 1992, the most recent year for which figures are available, were performed after 20 weeks of gestation. About 320 were performed after 26 weeks.

Santorum’s ban, however, would bar the procedure at any time during pregnancy, even before viability.

While Daschle’s proposal appears more stringent than Santorum’s because it would bar late-term abortions in general rather than just the rarely used D&E procedure, abortion opponents said because it does not affect pre-viability abortions _ which the Supreme Court has said cannot be restricted _ and includes the health exception, it was impossible to support.”Such a proposal (as Daschle’s) will not provide what the partial-birth ban is intended to achieve _ the elimination of a procedure that is both heinous and unnecessary,”Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, the Roman Catholic Church’s top official on abortion issues, said in a letter to each senator.”It is extremely doubtful that the Daschle proposal would have any impact on the thousands of partial-birth procedures performed each year _ both because most are performed in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy, not after viability, and because any `health’ exceptions will be subject to the broad interpretations of federal courts and the subjective judgment of abortion practitioners,”said Law, who serves as chairman of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on pro-life activities.


Tom Eliff, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, told a news conference Tuesday he also found the Daschle proposal unacceptable because it would”allow partial-birth abortion on demand in the fifth and sixth months, and at any abortionists’ unreviewable discretion in the seventh month or later.” Eliff and nine past presidents of the 15.6 million-member denomination have written Clinton urging him to drop what Eliff called”your continued defense of the killing of living premature babies.” The letter also rejected any compromise like the one offered by Daschle.”Senator Daschle’s anticipated proposal is not a `restriction’ or a `compromise’ _ it is a transparent political sham, which probably would not prevent a single partial-birth abortion,”the letter said.

Supporters of legal abortion were lukewarm about the Daschle proposal.”The Daschle bill offers far greater protection than”Santorum’s measure, said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. However, she said, it weakens the rights the Supreme Court bestowed in its landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling.”We’re not supporting the Daschle legislation because it goes too far,”she said.

On Wednesday, the White House said Clinton would support Daschle’s or Feinstein’s version of a ban.”The president has long been an opponent of late-term abortions,”White House spokesman Michael McCurry said.

McCurry said Clinton would favor a late-term ban except”in those exceptional circumstances where there needs to be protection for a woman’s life and health … and the amendments offered by either Senator Daschle or Senator Feinstein would meet that specification, according to the analysis that’s been presented to the president.”

MJP END ANDERSON

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