[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 23 (Thursday, February 27, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S1775]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTIONS

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, I would like to draw the Senate's 
attention to a statement that was made yesterday by an individual 
heavily involved in the debate on partial-birth abortions. Like most 
Americans, I oppose partial-birth abortions. These latest facts which 
have now come to light show that the defense of this indefensible 
procedure has been built on some outright lies.
  Yesterday, Wednesday, February 26, in the New York Times, there was a 
story that ran on page A-11, detailing the admissions of Ron 
Fitzsimmons, the executive director of the National Coalition of 
Abortion Providers. In the course of that article, and in another 
published in the American Medical News dated March 3, Mr. Fitzsimmons 
admits to lying, ``through [his] teeth,'' during his defense of 
partial-birth abortions, when he said that the procedure was used 
rarely and only on women whose lives were in danger or whose fetuses 
were damaged.
  ``It made me physically ill'' to make these statements, he said. ``I 
told my wife the next day, `I can't do this again.' ''
  The lies he admitted to focus on three major issues about partial-
birth abortion, which is a terrible procedure, a late-term child being 
pulled out, mostly delivered, turned over, and then the abortion 
performed.
  The lies he admitted to focus on three major issues: No. 1, the 
number of these abortions performed annually in the United States; No. 
2, the physical health of the mother and child involved; and, No. 3, 
the timing of the majority of partial-birth abortions.
  In an April 10, 1992, news conference announcing his veto of a ban on 
this procedure, H.R. 1833, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the 
President said, ``This terrible problem affects a few hundred Americans 
every year.'' And that has been continued to be claimed by a number of 
others. Yet, Mr. Fitzsimmons' admission is different. In the New York 
Times he now says the ``procedure is performed far more often than his 
colleagues have acknowledged, and on healthy women bearing healthy 
fetuses.''
  The Medical News story reports on an investigation done by the 
Record, a Bergen County, NJ, newspaper, and they stated this:

       The New Jersey paper reported last fall that physicians at 
     one facility performed an estimated 3,000 abortions a year on 
     fetuses between 20 and 24 weeks of which at least half are by 
     intact D&E [dilation and evacuation]. One of the doctors was 
     quoted as saying, ``We have an occasional amnio abnormality, 
     but it's a minuscule amount . . . most are for elective, not 
     medical reasons; people who did not realize, or didn't care, 
     how far along they were.''

  The Washington Post investigation turned up similar findings.
  I report that and put that forward here to the Senate, as this is an 
issue that is one of the front 10 Senate bills to face this body. It is 
a bill I hope we can act on. It is a bill, passed last year by both the 
House and Senate and vetoed by the President, to ban this late-term-
abortion procedure, a procedure that is an abhorrent procedure, opposed 
by virtually all American people. Now we are finding out from some of 
the leading people advocating on the other side that they 
misrepresented--indeed, he said, ``outright lied'' about the number and 
the timeframe as to when these were performed.
  I hope we can move forward aggressively and quickly on banning this 
procedure in America. And I hope the President will reconsider, in 
light of these factual statements, in light of this information that is 
coming forward from particular people involved directly in the 
industry, and that he will sign the bill this year, when we pass this, 
to ban this horrendous procedure that has continued to be allowed in 
our civilized country.
  I commend all Senators to read this article that appeared yesterday 
in the New York Times, and the article I cited that is going to be 
appearing in the Medical News. I think it will add new light to this 
situation, and, hopefully, we can move forward, united, to take away 
this terrible situation that continues to happen in our country.
  With that I yield the floor.
  
                            ____________________