[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 35 (Tuesday, March 18, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1075-H1076]
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 Colorado [Mr. McInnis] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, this evening my comments are going to be 
about a procedure that I did not even know existed as of 2 years ago, 
and that is called partial birth abortion. What is partial birth 
abortion? I think it is incumbent upon every citizen of this country, 
every American in this country to understand what that procedure is.
  Now, let me explain it to my colleagues without trying to get too 
graphic. What it is, it is the abortion in the late term of a 
pregnancy. What do I mean by that and how does this procedure carry it 
out? What I mean is that in this country it is legal for a pregnant 
individual to go into the delivery room on delivery date, 9 months, 
upon delivery date and have that fetus aborted.
  How is the procedure carried out? The baby is actually delivered feet 
first all the way out of the woman's body except for about 1 inch of 
the baby's head. At that point in time, a procedure is instituted which 
pierces the skull and, frankly, sucks the brains out of this 
individual. This is at 9 months or 8 months or 7 months. This is not 
the usual term of abortion as we think about it or hear about it. This 
procedure is actually performed not rarely, by the way. Even an 
advocate of this procedure admitted that he lied last year when he said 
that it was a rare procedure. It is a procedure that is performed on a 
fairly common basis.
  Think of it in our country. We have some of the most advanced 
hospitals in the world. On one end of the hospital we will use whatever 
technology is available, whatever cash resources are necessary to save 
the life of a premature baby that on a lot of occasions may be no 
larger than your hand. On the other end of the hospital, a 9-month 
delivery, a regular delivery, no prematurity, a regular delivery, we 
allow under our laws in this country for any reason whatsoever for that 
child's life to be terminated, terminated through this procedure.
  Some will tell us that this is a rare procedure, that it is a 
procedure performed for medical necessity.
  Let me quote from C. Everett Koop: ``I believe Mr. Clinton was misled 
by his medical advisors on what is fact and what is fiction on the 
matter,'' he said.
  Such a procedure, he added, cannot truthfully be called medically 
necessary for either the mother or, he scarcely need point out, for the 
baby.
  Dr. Romer, Dr. Smith, Dr. Cook and Dr. DeCook:

       None of this risk is ever necessary for any reason. We and 
     many other doctors across the United States regularly treat 
     women whose unborn children suffer the same conditions as 
     those cited by the women who appeared in the veto ceremony 
     held a year ago by the President. Never is the partial birth 
     procedure necessary.

  Let me quote from the Wall Street Journal, Thursday April 25:

       With capital punishment back in vogue, we ought to devise a 
     modern method of execution for particularly fiendish 
     criminals, the

[[Page H1076]]

     Unabomber, if convicted of these diabolical acts of which he 
     is suspected, for example. We have a modest proposal. Why not 
     stick a catheter in his brain and suck it out until his skull 
     collapses. We jest, of course. No one would think of doing 
     this to another human being, even the Unabomber, but the 
     President of the United States stands up foursquare for doing 
     to it babies still in the womb but nearing birth, vetoing 
     Congress's attempt to ban this procedure in late term 
     abortions. And of course he gets plaudits from all those 
     eager to brand the Christian right or other abortion foes as 
     extremists.

  Let me say, the Wall Street Journal is not a pro-life publication. 
These columns, speaking of the Wall Street Journal, have never been 
part of the pro-life movement.

       Lay aside the Unabomber, how about a baboon, for that 
     matter a white rat? The Federal Government has extensive sets 
     of rules and regulations on the humane treatment of animals 
     in biomedical research. There are U.S. government principles 
     on the utilization and the care of vertebrate animals, for 
     example, and a Federal Animal Welfare Act. Each research 
     institution must ponder these issues through a committee with 
     at least one outside member representing the public. The 
     regulations mandate ``avoidance of minimization of 
     discomfort, distress and pain,'' and specify ``Surgical or 
     other painful procedures should not be performed on 
     unanesthetized animals paralyzed by chemical agents.

  To the people of this country, to my colleagues in this Chamber, 
understand what partial birth abortion means. It is wrong. Understand 
that this procedure is not an abortion performed the day after 
intercourse takes place. This is a procedure that legally in this 
country can be performed 9 months after that intercourse takes place, 
on delivery date. It is important that we all support the ban on this 
procedure. It is wrong to allow it to happen in this country.

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