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Editor's Desk: Failed Vote
By Michael F. Flach
HERALD Editor
The failure of the U.S. Senate last week to override President Clinton’s veto of the partial-birth abortion ban is disheartening, but it has not discouraged pro-life groups from continuing the battle.
"It is appalling that 36 senators voted to allow babies to be delivered alive, feet first up to their heads, before killing them," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). "Millions of Americans will remember this vote when they go to the polls in November."
Sixty-four senators voted to override the veto, leaving the Senate three votes short of the required two-thirds majority. Virginia Senator Chuck Robb voted to sustain Clinton’s veto, as did Maryland Senators Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes and Massachusetts Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry.
Some senators who voted against the bill endorsed a different proposal, sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), which they claimed would ban most late-term abortions. But Johnson called the Durbin bill "a political ploy so riddled with loopholes that it would not prevent a single abortion."
"Some senators have opposed the ban because they do not want the slightest crack in the wall of the ‘right to choose,’" said Father Frank Pavone, executive director of Priests for Life and regular HERALD columnist. "But saying that abortion rights include partial-birth abortion actually reveals how morally bankrupt the whole notion of abortion-rights is.
"Some lawmakers who oppose the ban identify themselves as Catholic," he said. "As an association of Catholic clergy teaching in union with our bishops, we clearly and vigorously repeat what the U.S. bishops said in their Resolution on Abortion: ‘No Catholic can responsibly take a pro-choice stand when the choice in question involves the taking of innocent human life.’ We are also pastorally ready to assist such individuals to overcome their difficulty in embracing Church teaching."
Copyright ©1998 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 23, No 38;
dated Sep 24, 1998, on the page 4.
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letters@catholicherald.com
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Circulation: 703/841-2565
A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that Abortion is also murder. We must understand that murder is still murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrifying does not justify the other less repugnant methods. We should be sickened by any Abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly: "Thou shalt not kill." A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul. Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any Abortion occurs. Please contact your Senator to let him know how upset you are that Abortions are legal and to pass and support legislation to stop Partial-Birth Abortions and all other Abortions as soon as possible.
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