Your Government Inaction: Life Issues 2002

The House of Representatives passed a bill to ban Partial Birth Abortion by 274 to 151 in July of 2002. The president says he is eager to sign it. The Senate is for it 61 to 39. But there's the rub: as of this writing (October 2002) it hasn't been brought up for a vote in the Senate, and it almost certainly will not be as long as Tom Daschle (D-SD) and the present leadership remains in power.

Five pro-life senators - including Ohio Senator George Voinovich (R) - held a press conference in early October to make the public aware that the only thing stopping an array of pro-life bills is the small cadre of the Senate leadership. Under Senate rules, the leadership controls which bills actually come up for a vote, and the present leadership has made clear that they simply will not allow a vote on any abortion-related bill where they know that the majority will vote pro-life.

Other life-issue bills that have passed the House and that the president supports, but which the Senate leadership has not allowed a vote on:

Weldon-Stupak-Brownback (would ban cloning of humans)
Unborn Victims of Violence Act (would recognize an unborn child who is injured or killed during commission of a federal crime as a victim for legal purposes)
Child Custody Protection Act (would make it a crime to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion not permitted in her home state without her parents' knowledge)
Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (would prohibit state and local governments from discriminating against hospitals and other health care providers for refusing to participate in abortions)

Only one pro-life bill has been allowed to come to a vote in the Senate since the 2000 elections: the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which says that any child who shows signs of life while completely outside the womb is legally a "person" under federal law.

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Posted 28 Oct 2002.