Pro-Life Lawmakers and NRLC Launch New Effort to Ban Partial-Birth Abortion.(National Right to Life Committee)

WASHINGTON (July 7, 2002) - - Key federal lawmakers, with strong support from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), have launched a new effort to ban partial-birth abortions nationwide.

President Bill Clinton twice blocked enactment of such a national ban with his veto - - but President George W. Bush supports a ban on partial-birth abortion.

On June 19, a new version of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (H.R. 4965) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Steve Chabot (pronounced "SHA-bit"), Republican of Ohio.

Mr. Chabot, joined by lawmakers from both parties at a press conference, explained that his bill is targeted at the abortion method "in which a physician delivers an unborn child's body until only the head remains inside the womb, punctures the back of the child's skull with a sharp instrument, and sucks the child's brains out before completing delivery of the dead infant."

"Partial-birth abortion is the termination of the life of a living baby just seconds before it takes its first breath outside the womb," Mr. Chabot said, adding, "A moral, medical, and ethical consensus exists that partial-birth abortion is an inhumane procedure that is never medically necessary and should be prohibited."

Mr. Chabot is the chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. The subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the bill on July 9, with votes by the subcommittee and full Judiciary Committee anticipated within days thereafter.

Supporters hope that the full House will pass the bill before Congress begins a five-week recess on July 26.