Copyright 1999 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
October 21, 1999, Thursday, FIVE STAR LIFT
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 769 words
HEADLINE:
SENATE REJECTS DURBIN'S BILL TO BAN MOST "PARTIAL-BIRTH
ABORTIONS";
MORE STRICT GOP MEASURE TO BAN ALL SUCH
PROCEDURES WILL BE VOTED ON TODAY
BYLINE: Deirdre
Shesgreen; Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
DATELINE:
WASHINGTON
BODY:
The Senate killed
Democratic-sponsored legislation to ban most "partial-birth
abortions" and other late-term abortions Wednesday, clearing
the way for a vote today on a more stringent Republican-supported bill.
The Senate voted 61-38 to shelve the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Dick
Durbin, D-Ill., after an emotional and sometimes graphic daylong debate over the
procedure. Durbin's bill would have provided an exception to the
ban when the mother's life or health is threatened.
The
GOP legislation expected to pass today is similar to bills passed in 1995 and
1997 and vetoed by President Bill Clinton. He is likely to do the same this
year. The Senate debate comes in the wake of a high-profile battle over the same
issue in Missouri. Last month, the Legislature voted to override Gov. Mel
Carnahan's veto of a similar partial-birth abortion ban.
Democrat
Carnahan's veto is certain to be a front-burner issue in his race against Sen.
John Ashcroft, R-Mo., for the U.S. Senate next year. Ashcroft, who had called on
Carnahan to sign the Missouri law, is a co-sponsor of the GOP ban.
Durbin's legislation would have banned late-term abortions but provided
exceptions if the pregnancy threatened the life or risked "grievous injury" to
the health of the mother. The Republican bill, authored by Sen. Rick Santorum,
R-Pa., would ban all partial-birth abortions without exception.
Santorum
argued that his bill was not about abortion but about killing babies after they
are out of the mother's womb. So-called partial-birth abortion - in which a
doctor partially delivers a fetus and then drains its skull - "is a rogue
procedure that is infanticide," Santorum said.
Santorum argued that his
bill would fall outside the parameters of Roe vs. Wade, the landmark Supreme
Court decision that said women have a right to abort a fetus before it is
"viable," meaning it can survive outside the womb.
Durbin and other
Democrats argued that the Republican bill would be unconstitutional, would put
women's health in jeopardy and would interfere with medical decisions that
should be left to families and their doctors.
"I am not a doctor and I'm
not going to play one in the Senate," Durbin said. "There is a more sensible
way."
He recounted the stories of three women who found out late in
their pregnancies that their babies had severe deformities and would not
survive. The three women had partial-birth abortions because their doctors
advised them that they would be putting their own health at risk if they had the
babies, Durbin said.
"These were mothers and fathers who wanted their
babies," Durbin said. "This was not some casual decision."
He and others
said that 30 states have passed similar laws and that courts have fully or
partially enjoined 20 of them.
One of the most set of recent decisions
came from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, which struck down
partial-birth abortion bans in three states: Iowa, Nebraska and Arkansas.
Santorum's bill is similar to the laws at issue in the 8th Circuit's appellate
decisions.
The Missouri law is already entangled in a similar court
challenge. After last month's override vote, abortion rights advocates
immediately filed suit, and a federal district judge has stopped the law from
going into effect pending a trial, set for March.
The Missouri law is
different from the federal proposal in that it bans "infanticide" through a
criminal law rather than a civil statute. Supporters of the law say it will
withstand constitutional scrutiny because it specifically bans infanticide while
still allowing "traditional" legal abortions.
Abortion rights advocates
disagree, saying that the Missouri law is more extreme than those struck down by
the appeals court and is intended to take away a women's right to choose an
abortion.
As with the legal battles, the political battle is sure to be
bruising for both sides. "I will be very badly labeled on this," Carnahan said
in an interview Wednesday.
Still, Carnahan defended his decision to veto
the law. "It was a very bad bill," he said, adding that he felt "vindicated" by
the appeals court ruling. He said he would sign a partial-birth abortion ban "in
a minute" if it provided an exception for the health of the mother.
Ashcroft did not participate in Wednesday's debate, but he plans to
speak in support of Santorum's bill today.
==========
Durbin's plan
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin's bill, which fell 61-38 in
Wednesday's vote, would have allowed an exception to the ban on late-term
abortions when the mother's life or health was threatened.
LOAD-DATE: October 21, 1999 
