c. 1998 Religion News Service
House votes to override Clinton veto of abortion procedure
(RNS) The House of Representatives, as expected, voted Thursday (July 23) to override President Clinton’s veto of a controversial late-term abortion procedure.
The bill, which passed 296-132, received the two-thirds majority needed for an override and now goes to the Senate, where the outcome is less certain.
If passed, the bill will outlaw a procedure known medically as”intact dilation and evacuation”that involves partially extracting a fetus, feet first, and collapsing the skull in the birth canal by suctioning out the brain.
Prior to the vote, members of Congress debated the issue, which has sharply divided politicians with differing views on abortion.
Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, considered the procedure, which critics call”partial-birth abortion,”to be murder.”As lawmakers, we do have a first responsibility to preserve life and preserve life of the most vulnerable kind _ babies yet unborn in the mother’s womb,”she said.
But Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., argued Americans should be able to make decisions concerning such personal matters with their families, doctors and spiritual advisers, rather than following a determination made by Congress.”We are in no way qualified to make this decision,”she said.”I pray that we will not override this veto.” President Clinton vetoed the bill last October, citing his continuing concern that it did not include an exception when a woman’s health is in jeopardy. The bill did have an exception if the procedure was needed to save the life of the mother.
The House previously overrode Clinton’s veto of a similar bill in 1995, but the veto was sustained by the Senate.
Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition, urged the Senate to override the veto when it considers the matter.”Let the whole world know that the House did its part on behalf of the overwhelming majority of the American people who support this ban,”he said.”The one reason why the United States still maintains the most extreme and most destructive abortion pogrom in the Western World is a man named William Jefferson Clinton.” A top official of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops likewise urged the Senate to override Clinton’s veto.”No nation and no congress can, in good conscience, permit the killing of partly born infants,”said Cardinal Bernard Law, chairman of the Pro-Life Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
New York City domestic-partners benefits challenged
(RNS) New York City has been sued by the American Center for Law and Justice in an attempt to prevent its new domestic partners law from being implemented.”This law is both legally and morally wrong,”Vincent P. McCarthy, Northeast regional counsel of the ACLJ, said in a statement.”By creating a special class of persons for whom matrimonial benefits flow but from whom no responsibilities are required, the City of New York mocks the dignity and inviolability of marriage as the foundational institution of our society.” The suit, filed Tuesday (July 21), seeks a hearing date to request a preliminary injunction to stop the law from being put into practice. The law, which provides many of the benefits enjoyed by married couples to unmarried heterosexual and homosexual partners of city employees, is scheduled to be implemented Sept. 5.
The ACLJ filed suit on behalf of three New York City taxpayers who object to the law _ Howard L. Hurwitz, Eileen F. Slattery and Steve Werner. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the city are named as defendants.
Lorna Goodman, the city’s senior assistant corporation counsel, who had not seen the suit when contacted by RNS Tuesday, declined to comment on the matter.
The ACLJ, founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, also is challenging laws in other cities _ including San Francisco and Santa Barbara, Calif. _ that offer benefits to domestic partners of city employees.
Priest arrested in slaying of Guatemalan human rights bishop
(RNS) A priest and a church cook have been arrested in the killing of Guatemalan Roman Catholic Bishop Juan Gerardi, a human rights campaigner whose death was widely believed to be politically motivated.
Gerardi was found dead April 26, just two days after he released the first part of a report alleging widespread human rights abuses by the Guatemalan army and paramilitary forces loyal to the government during the Central American nation’s 30-year civil war.
Investigating judge Isaias Figueroa Medina said the Rev. Mario Leonel Orantes Najera and Margarita Lopez were arrested at the San Sebastian Church where they and Gerardi worked. Orantes had discovered the body.
Gerardi’s slaying created an international outcry and several human rights activists suggested death squads might have been involved in the killing. Earlier this month, an associate of Gerardi in the Archbishop’s Office on Human Rights, Ronalth Ochaeta, said he had told government investigators of two military officers he believed were involved in the slaying.
The investigating judge would not say whether the priest carried out the murder or was an accessory or accomplice.
Members of the high-level commission overseeing the investigation refused to comment on the new arrests.”I cannot make any comment because there is a complete gag order,”Interior Minister Rodolfo Mendoza told Reuters.
Catholic Church officials also refused to comment until they had more information.
Four days after the April murder, police arrested Carlos Enrique Vielman, a self-described drunkard, and formally charged him with the killing.
Canadian church will appeal court decision child abuse
(RNS) The United Church of Canada says it will appeal a court decision that found it and the Canadian Federal Government”vicariously liable”for the sexual abuse of children at a residential school for indigenous children run by the church on behalf of the government.
Judge Donald Brenner of the Supreme Court in British Columbia earlier this year found the UCC and the government liable without fault for sexual assaults committed by Arthur Plint, a former dormitory supervisor in the now closed Alberni Indian Residential School on Vancouver Island.
Plint is serving 11 years in prison for abusing 18 boys at the school through the 1950s and 1960s. The school was one of 80 run by Anglican, UCC and Roman Catholic churches.”In filing this appeal, we are not for one moment backing away from our statement … that `we express our deep regret and sorrow to the First Nations of Canada for the injustices that were done and for the role of the United Church of Canada in the native residential school system,'”the church said.
But he said the denomination disagreed with the judge’s legal analysis.”Every person involved is struggling with how justice for horrific wrongs can be achieved,”moderator Bill Phipps wrote in a letter being sent to all UCC congregations.”I urge all of us to continue praying for God’s guidance, remembering especially the victims of these evil acts and the wider legacy of assimilation policies reflected in the residential school system.”
Update: House of Lords votes to overturn gay age-of-consent law
(RNS) Britain’s unelected House of Lords _ the upper chamber in Parliament _ has voted against lowering the age of consent for homosexuals from 18 to 16.
Members on Wednesday (July 22) voted 290-122 in favor of an amendment overturning the House of Commons, which last week voted 333-129 to lower the age of consent for homosexuality to 16, the same age as heterosexuals and in line with many European countries.
The campaign to overturn the House of Commons vote was lead by Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, a member of the upper chamber. He was joined in his opposition by religious leaders across the faith spectrum.”Do we really want to open the floodgates of suffering even further than they are already?”said Lord Jakobovits, Britain’s chief rabbi and a member of the House of Lords.
The Evangelical Alliance UK also voiced support for the effort to override the House of Commons.”Our objection to a lower age of consent for homosexuals has nothing to do with the desire to see young people jailed,”Martyn Eden, public affairs director of the Alliance, said in a statement. But he said any reduction in the age of consent”sends a signal to all young people that it is acceptable to experiment sexually at whatever age you want.” The age of consent provision is part of a larger anti-crime initiative. On Thursday, officials in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government said the government is unlikely to endanger passage of the larger bill by pushing another vote on the gay issue.
Quote of the day: William Donohue of the Catholic League
(RNS)”If members of Congress insist on continuing this subsidy for the rich, they must at least exercise their oversight responsibility, and see that public monies are not used to trash our moral values and religious beliefs.” _ William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, reacting to House passage of legislation renewing the National Endowment for the Arts and providing the agency with $98 million.
DEA END RNS
