Senate Attempts to Weaken Pro-Life Policies Are Blocked by Veto Threats and Pro-Life Lawmakers.

WASHINGTON (November 7, 2001) -- Pro-abortion senators have run up against a brick wall in recent attempts to weaken or repeal several important pro-life policies. The White House has given notice that bills that contain language that would erode pro-life policies will face vetoes by President Bush if they reach his desk.

The pro-abortion challenges have emerged in recent weeks during congressional consideration of the 13 appropriations bills that provide funding for all government agencies for fiscal year 2002.

In passing this year's crop of appropriations bills, the House of Representatives has included all of the pro-life provisions ("riders") that were originally enacted in past years. It has been a different story in the Senate, however, where so far there have been attempts on four different appropriations bills to roll back pro-life policies.

Embryo Research and Cloning

Of special concern to pro-life forces is the Health and Human Services (HHS) appropriations bill. As approved by the House on October 11, the bill extends a crucial pro-life law called the "Dickey Amendment." Originally enacted in 1996, the Dickey Amendment prohibits federal funding of "research in which" human embryos are harmed.

Unfortunately, in the Senate the HHS bill is managed by two of the senators who most zealously advocate research that requires destruction of human embryos - - Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who are the chairman and ranking Republican, respectively, on the appropriations subcommittee that oversees the bill.

In mid-October, Harkin and Specter included language in their version of the HHS bill to substantially weaken the Dickey Amendment by authorizing federal funding of stem cell research using any human embryos deemed to be "in excess of clinical need."