[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 22 (Wednesday, February 26, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H642-H643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Canady] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CANADY of Florida. Mr. Speaker, in partial-birth abortion, the 
abortionist forcibly turns a child into the breach position, pulls the 
living child by the leg out of the mother until only the head is left 
inside, stabs the child in the base of the skull, and removes the 
child's brain, then pulls the now dead child out of the mother.
  This is a horrible procedure to describe, but it is a procedure which 
is being performed in this country today, and it is now a matter of 
public record that this type of abortion is performed at least several 
thousand times per year in the United States, primarily in the fifth 
and sixth months of pregnancy; that is, the second trimester, although 
sometimes in the third trimester, and mainly on healthy babies of 
healthy mothers.

[[Page H643]]

  The press and abortion advocates are finally beginning to admit the 
truth about this horrible procedure. The New York Times this morning 
reported that an abortion rights advocate admitted that he lied about 
partial-birth abortion just as Planned Parenthood, the National 
Abortion Federation, and the National Abortion Rights Action League 
claim that partial-birth abortion is a rare procedure used only under 
narrow circumstances such as when a mother's life or future fertility 
is threatened.
  Ron Fitzsimmons, the executive director of the National Coalition of 
Abortion Providers, says that he intentionally lied through his teeth, 
and I quote him, when he repeated these claims to a Nightline camera. 
He said he was physically ill after the episode and told his wife that 
he could not do it again.
  The New York Times reported that Mr. Fitzsimmons says the procedure 
is performed far more often than his colleagues have acknowledged and 
on healthy women bearing healthy fetuses. The abortion rights folks 
know it, he said.
  The Times took some of its information from an American Medical News 
article in which Mr. Fitzsimmons was interviewed. Fitzsimmons told the 
American Medical News that proabortion spokespersons should drop their 
spins and half-truths. He explained that the disinformation has hurt 
the abortionist he represents and said, ``When you're a doctor who does 
these abortions and the leaders of your movement appear before Congress 
and go on network news and say these procedures are done in only the 
most tragic of circumstances, how do you think it makes you feel? You 
know they're primarily done on healthy women and healthy fetuses, and 
it makes you feel like a dirty little abortionist with a dirty little 
secret.''
  Based on the false claims of abortion advocates, a so-called 
compromise to a partial-birth abortion ban is being offered by Senator 
Daschle and President Clinton. The truth of the matter is, it is no 
compromise at all. In truth, it is irrelevant to partial-birth 
abortions.
  The so-called compromise would ban partial-birth abortions performed 
in the third trimester except when they are necessary to preserve the 
life or the health of the mother, but the vast majority of partial-
birth abortions are performed in the second trimester.
  With regard to third trimester abortions, the bill's health exception 
effectively permits all abortions. The Supreme Court interprets health 
abortions to include all those related to social, psychological, 
financial, or emotional concerns.
  The truth is, partial-birth abortion is never necessary. Hundreds of 
physicians and fetal maternal specialists along with former Surgeon 
General Koop have come forward to unequivocally state that partial-
birth abortion is never necessary to preserve a mother's life or health 
or to preserve her future fertility. In fact, the procedure can 
significantly threaten a mother's health or ability to carry future 
children to term. Abortion advocates should stop trying to deceive the 
public with their phony ban.
  In the American Medical News article, Mr. Fitzsimmons said the pro-
choice movement has lost a lot of credibility during this debate not 
just with the general public but with our pro-choice friends in 
Congress. I think we should tell them the truth, let them vote, and 
move on.
  Mr. Speaker, he is right. Abortion advocates should tell the truth 
about partial-birth abortion, Congress should vote to ban this horrible 
procedure, the President should sign the ban, and we should move on.

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