FROM THE PRESIDENT "THE ELECTED BRANCHES OF OUR GOVERNMENT HAVE AFFIRMED A BASIC STANDARD OF HUMANITY".

Instead of an extended commentary, let me just give you a sampling of reports and opinion on the momentous events of recent weeks. Mostly, they speak for themselves.

* October 21, 2003--a date to remember

The Senate on Tuesday [10/21/03] voted [64 to 34] to ban the practice that critics call partial-birth abortion, sending President Bush a measure that supporters and foes alike said could alter the future of U.S. abortion rightsE.

"This is an enormous day. It's been a long seven-year fight about the issue of partial-birth abortion," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. He was a leader of the drive to end abortions, generally carried out in the second or third trimester, in which a fetus is partially delivered before being killedE. [Note that the word "killed" is actually used in describing an abortion.]

---AP wire story, 10/21/03 (on MSNBC.com: "Senate votes to ban abortion practice")

Six days after the feeding tube of a brain-damaged woman [Terri Schiavo] was removed in a case pitting her husband against her parents, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered it reinserted on Tuesday after the Legislature empowered him to do so. The extraordinary step overrides years of court rulings.

---Abby Goodnough in the New York Times, 10/21/03 ("Governor of Florida orders woman fed in right-to-die case")