Ban On Abortion Procedure Debated

Supporters of legislation to ban certain late-term abortions say they're on the way to victory in Congress. Opponents claim they'll triumph at the Supreme Court.

Either way, the Senate is back in an emotionally charged debate for the fourth time in recent years over legislation to ban what the bill's sponsors call partial birth abortions.

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said on the Senate floor Monday the legislation was designed to prohibit a procedure performed only after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and described it in graphic detail. The fetus is partially delivered, he said, and then a pair of scissors is "thrust into the base of the skull and ... the cranial contents removed."

"Just to describe it here has to send shivers down your back," he added.

He described it as a procedure that is "never medically necessary, not taught in any medical school in this country, not recommended," yet is performed more than 2,200 times a year.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., countered that Congress has no business intruding on a decision between a woman and her doctor.

She also said the measure was the leading edge of a broader campaign by abortion foes. "It's an attempt to outlaw all abortions, to take away a woman's right to choose ... and criminalize abortions," she said. "And what follows from that? Women and doctors would be in jail."

President Bush has pledged to sign the legislation if, as expected, it clears the Senate later this week and goes on to House passage. "The administration strongly believes that enactment ... is both morally imperative and constitutionally permissible," the administration said in a written statement.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in 2000 that a Nebraska state law crafted to ban the same procedure was unconstitutional because it failed to allow exceptions to preserve the health of the mother.

Santorum said the legislation being debated had been changed to take the court's ruling into account, but Boxer and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., both said that as written, the bill lacks a health exception.

Even before the first word was uttered on the Senate floor, the head of an abortion rights organization was looking past Bush's promised signature on the legislation to a court fight.

"We will challenge it, absolutely, without question," said Kate Michelman, head of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

The measure bans a procedure in which a doctor commits an "overt act" designed to kill a partially delivered fetus.

The legislation further defines "partial birth" as a case in which the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother. If the fetus were in a breech position, the ban would apply if "any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother."

The legislation includes an exemption in cases in which the procedure is necessary to save the life of the mother.

Congress has twice passed legislation banning the procedure, but former President Clinton vetoed the bill both times. Congress appeared ready to pass a third measure in 2000, but halted its efforts after the Supreme Court struck down the Nebraska law.

The House passed a reworked version of the bill last year, but majority Democrats refused to schedule a debate in the Senate.

Republicans won control of the Senate in last fall's elections and promptly placed the bill on their list of top 10 priorities.

"I think the odds are very good" the bill will be signed into law, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said.