ACTIONALERT Urge your senators to demand that the Senate send the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act to President Bush!(Brief Article)

WASHINGTON (Sept. 3, 2002) -- The House of Representatives has already passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (H.R. 4965), and President Bush is eager to sign the bill into law. Just one obstacle now remains to enactment of a national ban on partial-birth abortions: the Senate Democratic leadership.

Under Senate rules, the leader of the majority party has broad powers to schedule or to obstruct legislation. The Democrats currently control the Senate by a single seat, 51-49.

Congress has approved national bans on partial-birth abortion twice before, but they were vetoed by President Clinton in 1996 and 1997, and pro-life forces fell short in the Senate of the two-thirds vote needed to override those vetoes. But a two-thirds vote is no longer required, because President Bush strongly supports the bill. All that is required is a vote by the Senate to send the bill to the President for his signature.

"If there was a clean up-and-down vote on the bill passed by the House, the Senate would approve it," said NRLC Federal Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. "If the ban on partial-birth abortion does not reach President Bush for his signature before Congress adjourns, the blame will rest squarely on the Senate Democratic leadership."

According to the New York Times (July 25), "Abortion rights advocates are counting on the majority leader, Senator Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, to prevent a bill from coming to the floor. `The Senate is our firewall,' one abortion rights supporter said."

Daschle actually claims to support the ban on partial-birth abortions -- but he also says that the Senate is too busy to take up the bill before Congress adjourns in early October so that lawmakers can campaign before the November 5 general election.

Daschle's excuse is phony. The chief Senate sponsor of the ban, Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), said, "We should never claim to be too busy to consider legislation promoting the protection of life. There is no need for a long debate -- a few hours will suffice. The Senate has debated similar legislation many times."