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Partial-Birth Abortion Press Conference Statement of Sandy Rios 3/13/2003
When Partial Birth Abortion became part of public discussion in 1995, Americans were horrified and repulsed by a procedure that crushed the skull and sucked the brains out of an otherwise healthy baby up until and including the ninth month in its mother's womb. Even pro-abortion congressmen reeled at the gruesome details, with former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-New York) famously labeling the procedure "infanticide."
But even as the most hardened pro-abortionists walking the halls of Congress hurried to ban it, President Bill Clinton boldly vetoed it...twice. This is the one time in his presidency that Dick Morris' polls didn't determine his decision. With the American people overwhelmingly in support of a ban and their elected officials representing them faithfully, at least this time, he showed uncharacteristic determination to see not that right prevail, but gruesome death for inconvenient babies.
Members of the House held fast, passing a ban on four different occasions in the ensuing years, but for members of the Senate it became more of a problem. How could senators vote against something their constituents felt so strongly about yet stay true to their pro-abortion special interests to whom they had made promises and by whom they had financed their campaigns?
Sen. Tom Daschle (R-South Dakota) solved the problem by simply refusing to let the ban come up for a vote. This was the perfect solution because senators could have it both ways. They could assure their constituents that they were against the procedure while not actually voting for the ban.
Sen. Dick Durbin had an even more clever idea. In 1999, he and others crafted the "Durbin Substitute." This was to be an amendment to the partial-birth abortion ban that would make it look like senators were voting for a ban while in effect keeping it legal.
A bait and switch. A sleight of hand. A masterful spin. A cesspool of deceit. As proof of its effectiveness, neither NARAL nor Planned Parenthood objected to the "Durbin Substitute." In fact NARAL was consulted on the wording to make sure it was, in the words of Goldilocks, "just right."
This amendment was subsequently labeled a "ban" on all methods of "late-term abortion," while in actual fact it would ban no abortions at all. The Durbin Amendment was, in effect, a law against nothing.
A careful examination of wording is needed to parse this clever, political construct. First of all, the amendment states that it would be illegal for a physician to abort a viable fetus.
That first point sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Until you realize that the aborting doctor has the sole responsibility to declare viability. There is no standard, no test, and it would be impossible to prove after the procedure that any baby was "viable."
Point 2 continues with the stipulation that the procedure could be performed if the doctor would certify that "the continuation of a woman's pregnancy would threaten the mother's life or risk grievous injury to her physical health."
Risk. An unconstrained word, one that would render enforcement impossible. Dr. Warren Hern, one of the two leading third-trimester abortionists in the country, upon reading the Durbin Amendment, said he could abort ANY PREGNANT WOMAN in the third trimester under this amendment, because EVERY PREGNANCY involves some risk of serious physical injury or even death.
As a matter of fact, under the Durbin Amendment, an abortionist who knows full well a baby is viable, the mother healthy and without risk, can still perform the procedure without incurring any criminal penalty, for the amendment contains none. He could be fined perhaps or have his license suspended, but not criminally prosecuted even though he would be in violation of the law.
The games and lies of politicians have been the subject of jokes for decades. No one it seems expects a politician to tell the truth. Well, with the bar having been brought so low, the people from the state of Illinois, my home state, have gotten what they expected.
It's time for low expectations and lack of accountability to end. If Sen. Durbin and others like him believe that late-term babies should be slaughtered much like animals in a meat house to please their cash-flush special-interest supporters, let them stand and argue their position. To hide behind phony amendments in an attempt to deceive their own constituents is the worst kind of deception.
Make no mistake. Any senator who votes for the Durbin substitute on the Senate floor is part of the deception, and I am asking the American public to join the 500,000 members of Concerned Women For America in seeing that their time in the Senate rapidly comes to an end. |
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