sauce for the loon
Sep. 18th, 2003 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sisyphusshruggedThe first federal law that would restrict a woman's right to abortion moved a step closer to President Bush's signature today when the Senate, which had refused to send the bill to conference with the House, agreed unanimously to do so.
Backers of the measure, which would outlaw the late-term procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion, say they hope to have it on Mr. Bush's desk later this fall. The only remaining obstacle is a provision, contained in the Senate bill but not the House version, that affirms Senate support for the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.
As part of today's action, the Senate voted 93 to 0 to affirm that right again and disagree with the House bill.
But the unanimous vote - which opponents of abortion said reflected their desire to get the larger bill to conference - provided little comfort to advocates for abortion rights because both Democrats and Republicans expect the Roe language to be stripped from the final measure.
"It won't be a problem," said Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania and a chief sponsor of the larger measure. "It's extraneous to the matter at hand."
Senator Santorum, if you recall, took his wife to the hospital for a "partial-birth abortion" which was made unnecessary when she went into premature labor and delivered a baby, which died. A "partial-birth abortion" (the Senator's chosen shorthand for the procedure in question) is a late-term procedure which takes place when the baby is not going to survive and natural delivery could be harmful or fatal to the mother.
Presumably Mrs. Santorum's health was more important.
Yours isn't.
Backers of the measure, which would outlaw the late-term procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion, say they hope to have it on Mr. Bush's desk later this fall. The only remaining obstacle is a provision, contained in the Senate bill but not the House version, that affirms Senate support for the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.
As part of today's action, the Senate voted 93 to 0 to affirm that right again and disagree with the House bill.
But the unanimous vote - which opponents of abortion said reflected their desire to get the larger bill to conference - provided little comfort to advocates for abortion rights because both Democrats and Republicans expect the Roe language to be stripped from the final measure.
"It won't be a problem," said Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania and a chief sponsor of the larger measure. "It's extraneous to the matter at hand."
Senator Santorum, if you recall, took his wife to the hospital for a "partial-birth abortion" which was made unnecessary when she went into premature labor and delivered a baby, which died. A "partial-birth abortion" (the Senator's chosen shorthand for the procedure in question) is a late-term procedure which takes place when the baby is not going to survive and natural delivery could be harmful or fatal to the mother.
Presumably Mrs. Santorum's health was more important.
Yours isn't.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-18 06:58 am (UTC)Once up a time, I was walking through Washington Square PArk, and some women were soliciting signatures for a ban on certain types of pornography.
I refused to sign.
They started to give me grief over it.
I pointed out the (as I do now) that the first line drawn in the sand is never the last.
That the partial birth abortion legislation would turn into an assault on Roe V Wade.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-18 08:42 am (UTC)