[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 31 (Wednesday, March 12, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2202-S2203]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION

  Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise to address recent revelations 
concerning partial birth abortion. I also rise to draw my colleagues' 
attention to the letter sent to President Clinton by a group of 
American Roman Catholic leaders and read this past Sunday by Cardinal 
Adam Maida at the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit. That letter 
urged the President to ensure respect for all human rights--including 
those of the unborn--and called our attention to the misinformation 
distributed by some of those defending partial birth abortion.
  Mr. President, the abortion issue has been a difficult and divisive 
one for this country. But the unfortunate procedure of partial birth 
abortion need not be. The vast majority of Americans, even those who do 
not share my

[[Page S2203]]

own strongly pro-life convictions, oppose partial birth abortion. This 
overwhelming opposition helped produce legislation during the last 
Congress that would have banned that morally troubling procedure. 
Unfortunately, that legislation was vetoed by President Clinton. Now it 
turns out that that veto was based in part on inaccurate information.
  Mr. President, those who sought to defend partial birth abortion did 
so on the grounds that it was rare, undertaken only in cases of severe 
fetal deformity and strictly a late-term procedure. These arguments 
served to make the procedure seem less morally troubling to some in the 
pro-choice camp. But it turns out that these supposedly mitigating 
factors do not exist. Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the 
National Coalition of Abortion Providers, is quoted in the February 26 
New York Times as saying that he ``lied through [his] teeth'' in making 
each of these claims.

  It turns out, Mr. President, that literally thousands of partial 
birth abortions are performed in this country every year. It also turns 
out that the vast majority of these regrettable procedures are 
undertaken voluntarily--aborting perfectly healthy unborn children. And 
it turns out that partial birth abortions are being carried out on 
mothers in their second trimester of pregnancy.
  I know that abortion is an issue that raises troubling issues for 
many people. I know that I cannot help but take a strong pro-life 
position, because of my faith and because of my own personal 
experiences. My experience, having witnessed the births of my three 
children and having just had a nephew born 12 weeks premature, tells me 
that the loss of an unborn life is a great tragedy. My nephew was born 
during a time in his mother's pregnancy when many unborn children are 
still subject to partial birth abortion.
  I know that not everyone shares the pro-life position. But in my view 
it is clear that any reservations about restricting abortion need not 
and should not apply to partial birth abortion. The fact that the 
defenders of this procedure felt it necessary to mislead the public, 
Members of this body and the President, shows how little support their 
position really commands. Regardless of where one stands in the broader 
abortion debate, then, all of us should be able to see partial birth 
abortion for what it is: an unjustifiable and wholly unnecessary 
tragedy.
  Mr. President, it is my sincere hope that we will return as quickly 
as possible to the issue of partial birth abortion. It is also my hope 
that my colleagues will keep in mind this incident as they consider the 
factors supposedly mitigating this unfortunate procedure, and vote to 
end it once and for all.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an article from the 
Detroit News appear in the Record at this point.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 [From the Detroit News, Mar. 10, 1997]

 In Detroit: Maida, Other Cardinals Urge Ban on Partial-Birth Abortions

                     (By Oralandar Brand-Williams)

       Cardinal Adam Maida urged President Clinton to reconsider a 
     ban on partial-birth abortions during a public reading Sunday 
     of a letter sent to the president by a group of U.S. Roman 
     Catholic leaders.
       ``The public learned that partial-birth abortions are 
     performed not a few hundred times a year, but thousands of 
     times each year,'' Maida said during mass at Blessed 
     Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit.
       Last April, Clinton vetoed a bill that would have banned 
     the controversial procedure in which a fetus is partially 
     extracted, feet-first, from the birth canal. The brain is 
     then suctioned out.
       Critics call the procedure infanticide.
       Congress failed to override Clinton's veto.
       The letter to Clinton was also read Sunday by the six other 
     American cardinals who also lead archidioceses in the United 
     States and the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic 
     Bishops. All signed the letter with Maida, which Clinton 
     received Friday.
       ``Mr. President, you are in a unique position to ensure 
     respect for all human rights, including the right to me which 
     is denied to infants who are brutally killed in partial-birth 
     abortion,'' urged the letter.
       The letter asks Clinton to acknowledge that he was misled 
     about partial-birth abortion, and urges him to ask Congress 
     to pass a bill banning them. The letter also seeks a pledge 
     that Clinton will sign it into law.
       Two weeks ago, Ron Fizsimmons, executive director of the 
     National Coalition of Abortion Providers, said he 
     intentionally misled the public in previous remarks about the 
     procedure. Fitzsimmons said he feared that if the truth were 
     known about the frequency of partial-birth abortions, it 
     would damage the cause of abortion rights.
       Blessed Sacrament parishioner Canary Erving of Highland 
     Park said she supports Madia's efforts to get a ban on 
     partial-birth abortions.
       ``It's important that we keep our children,'' Erving said. 
     ``If you have to have it and give it away, it's better than 
     destroying the life.''

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