[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 172 (Thursday, November 2, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16589-S16590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTIONS

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I wish to commend the House of 
Representatives, which yesterday passed a ban on 

[[Page S 16590]]

the use of partial birth abortions by a margin of 288 to 139.
  There are many issues which divide reasonable people on both sides of 
the abortion debate. But use of this procedure, which occurs late in 
the pregnancy--even in the ninth month--is horrifying to contemplate 
and completely indefensible.
  I believe that people of good will, whatever their views on abortion 
generally, will agree that it is our obligation to act to defend the 
defenseless in circumstances where we can. This is one of those 
circumstances.
  Mr. President, earlier this year, Senator Smith introduced a similar 
ban on the use of partial birth abortions. It was placed on the Senate 
calendar under Rule XIV. It is my intention to schedule the House-
passed bill for floor consideration at the earliest possible 
opportunity. I trust the Senate will pass the bill quickly and send it 
to the President for his signature.
  I have little doubt that certainly the President will sign a bill to 
end this kind of procedure, this kind of practice.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, may we have order in the Senate so we can 
hear what the majority leader is saying? There are too many 
conversations going on.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct. The Senate will please 
come to order. The majority leader.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, we can no longer ignore the fact that 
teenagers across America are now resorting to illegal drugs in ever-
increasing numbers.
  The most recent national household survey reveals that marijuana use 
among teenagers has nearly doubled since 1992, after 13 years of 
decline. It also reveals that attitudes toward illegal drug use are 
softening; fewer and fewer teenagers now believe that using illegal 
drugs is an activity that should be avoided.
  Earlier today, the National Parents' Resource Institute for Drug 
Education [PRIDE], released its own annual survey of drug use by junior 
and senior high school students. According to the survey, not only are 
more and more high school students smoking marijuana, they are using it 
more frequently: one-third of high schools seniors smoked marijuana in 
the past year and more than 20 percent now smoke it on a monthly basis. 
The survey also shows that teenage use of hard drugs--cocaine and 
hallucinogens--is also on the rise. Since 1991, there has been a 36-
percent increase in cocaine use by students in grades 9 through 12 and 
use of hallucinogens has risen a staggering 75 percent since 1988.
  Tomorrow, we will probably hear some more disturbing news. If 
preliminary reports are correct, the Dawn Survey, conducted by the 
Department of Health and Human Services, will show that emergency-room 
admissions for drug overdoses are on the increase.
  Although then-Governor Clinton boasted during the 1992 Democratic 
Convention that President Bush ``hasn't fought a real war on crime and 
drugs * * * [and] I will,'' his record in office has not matched his 
campaign rhetoric. Through neglect and mismanagement, bad policy and 
misplaced priorities, the Clinton administration has transformed the 
war on drugs into a full-scale retreat.
  Drug interdiction is down. Drug prosecutions are down. The General 
Accounting Office tells us that the anti-drug effort in the source 
countries is badly mismanaged. And, perhaps most importantly, the moral 
bully pulpit has been abandoned.
  Regrettably, the administration's most prominent voice on this issue 
has been a surgeon general who believes the best way to fight illegal 
drugs is to legalize them.

  Obviously, we cannot continue down this path. Failing to control 
illegal drug use has real-life consequences that affect not only the 
user but the rest of society. Drugs and violent crime, for example, are 
inextricably linked. Forty-one percent of all reported AIDS cases are 
drug-related. Drugs are a major contributor to child abuse. And past 
studies show that heavy drug-users are twice as likely to be high 
school drop-outs than those who do not use drugs.
  So, Mr. President, we must ask ourselves: What can we do to jump-
start the fight against drugs?
  For starters, we must restore the stigma associated with illegal drug 
use.
  Those of us in positions of authority--whether it is parents or 
teachers, religious leaders or those who hold elective office--must be 
willing to repeat over and over again the simple message that using 
drugs is wrong and that drugs can and do kill.
  This message has worked before. It was called the Just Say No 
campaign. Illegal drug use declined dramatically throughout the 1980's 
and early 1990's in large part because our culture stigmatized drugs 
and shamed those who used them. This message got through to millions of 
teenagers and saved thousands of lives in the process.
  Perhaps one of the best kept secrets is that, between 1980 and 1992, 
overall drug use declined by 50 percent. Cocaine use dropped even 
further--by more than 70 percent. These successes were the result of 
many factors, but perhaps the most important factor was the steady 
antidrug message that came out of Washington and through the media.
  As Jim Burke, chairman of the Partnership for Drug-Free America, has 
explained: ``Looking back at the progress made in changing attitudes in 
the 80's, it is very clear that the media played a very important role 
in shaping children's antidrug attitudes. We need them now to again 
increase their role in that regard.'' I agree.
  So, Mr. President, I rise today to do my own part, to help raise 
public awareness about the disturbing increases in teenage drug use. We 
must say ``enough is enough.'' Our children must understand that using 
drugs is not only stupid but life-threatening. This is a message that 
can never be repeated too often.

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