[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3553-H3554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        REACTION TO VETO OF BILL BANNING PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Jones] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I was disappointed and appalled when 
President Clinton vetoed the partial birth abortion bill. The 
President's veto is in direct opposition to the will of the House and 
the Senate. Even more important, the President's veto is in direct 
opposition to the will of the majority of the American people.
  No one really is sure how many partial birth abortions are performed 
or how many abortionists are using the method. However, we do know that 
the overwhelming majority are performed on perfectly normal and healthy 
babies.
  Clearly this is an issue that crosses party lines. The bill passed 
the House with 214 Republicans and 72 Democrats voting for the 
legislation, and in the Senate with 45 Republicans and 9 Democrats. Yet 
the President has the gall to go against the American people.
  In recent polls, national polls of registered voters conducted in 
December by the Tarrance Group, 71 percent favored the bill that we 
passed. In another poll, 65 percent of pro-choice Americans supported 
the ban, the partial birth abortion ban. Specifically, 78 percent of 
women voters support the ban that the House and the Senate passed.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to read for the Record a statement by Ralph 
Reed regarding the veto of the partial birth abortion ban, and I quote:

       Bill Clinton has taken his veto pen and pointed it like a 
     dagger at the hearts of the innocent unborn. His veto is a 
     brazen betrayal of his solemn promise to make abortion rare. 
     It is an insult to millions of people of faith who consider 
     abortion to be the taking of innocent human life. It will be 
     very hard, if not impossible, for Bill Clinton to look Roman 
     Catholic and Evangelical voters in the eye and ask for their 
     support in November.

  I further quote Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition.

       I am proud to add my voice to those Roman Catholic bishops 
     who are so courageous, and implore President Clinton to sign 
     this legislation. The partial birth abortion is when a 
     child's brains are removed and the baby is systematically 
     executed as it comes down the birth canal. By allowing this 
     procedure to continue unchecked, President Clinton has 
     disappointed and deeply offended one of the largest voting 
     blocks in the electorate. Bill Clinton has done more today 
     than jeopardize the lives of unborn children. He has 
     jeopardized his own reelection chances.

                              {time}  1700

  Mr. Speaker, just one more letter I would like to make reference to 
before closing, because to the American people, this is an important 
issue to try to protect the life of the healthy unborn. This is from 
the Catholic Bishops and also from the Catholic Cardinals, and I happen 
to be Catholic.
  ``Your veto of this bill is beyond comprehension for those who hold 
human life sacred.''
  I further quote and read from the letter from the Catholic Bishops 
and Cardinals: ``Mr. President, you and you alone had the choice of 
whether or not to allow children almost completely born to be killed 
brutally in partial birth abortions. Members of both Houses of Congress 
made their choices. They said no to partial birth abortions. American 
women voters have made their choices. According to a February 1996 poll 
by Fairbanks Mullin & Associates, 78 percent of women voters said no to 
partial birth abortions.''
  Further stated in the letter from the Bishops and the Cardinals, ``We 
will also urge Catholics and other people of

[[Page H3554]]

good will, including the 65 percent of self-described pro-choice voters 
who oppose partial birth abortions, to do all they can to urge the 
Congress to override this shameful veto.''
  Mr. Speaker, I thank you for allowing me this time. I think this is 
one of the most important issues that this Congress has had the 
privilege to debate. Again, I think it is appalling and discouraging 
and disappointing that the President of the United States vetoed the 
bill that was passed by the House and Senate to protect the healthy 
unborn.

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