(AgapePress) - The Senate is beginning debate on a bill to ban the abortion procedure dubbed "partial-birth abortion." One Senator says he learned a long time ago where to stand on this issue. Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe has 19 children and grandchildren. He says their births have given him no doubt as to where he stands on this bill.

"I kinda have a dog in this fight. I was in the delivery room when some of [my grandchildren] were born. I remember the first time this happened was baby Jase, and I remember seeing this beautiful, beautiful baby [being] born. And then, it occurred to me for the first time, that they could have painfully murdered that baby -- not a fetus -- that little baby, and it would be perfectly appropriate and legal to do."

WARNING: Gruesome Procedure, Horrible Statistics
Partial-birth abortion is the procedure through which all but the head of a live baby is pulled feet-first out of its mother's womb into the birth canal; the head is left inside the cervix. Then, a long, sharp instrument is then used to pierce the base of the baby's skull and a suction machine removes the brains, killing the baby. The skull collapses, and the abortionist completes the abortion procedure.

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) Web site cites 1997 information from Ron Fitzsimmons, then executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, who estimated that 3,000 to 5,000 partial-birth abortions were performed annually. "In the vast majority of cases," Fitzsimmons said, "the procedure is performed on a healthy mother with a healthy fetus that is 20 weeks (5 months) or more along." However, it is also performed on babies in the seventh month and later. At this juncture, babies are deemed by physicians as "viable."

Senate Echoes House's Plea For Complete Ban on PBA
Senate Bill 3 (S 3) was introduced by Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. The bill would completely ban performance of a partial-birth abortion except if it were necessary to save a mother's life because of physical complications.

However, the NRLC reports that Kansas abortionists, who are required by state law to report their abortions, in 1999 performed 182 partial-birth abortions on babies they defined as viable, on women who had "mental" (psychiatric) difficulties as opposed to any physical problems.

Former Republican Presidential candidate Alan Keyes says it is time for the churches in our nation to rise up and make their voice heard on this issue. He says as America is engaged in a war against terrorists, we must not be guilty of the terrorists' same crime -- that of taking innocent lives. He says it is God who gives all life, and we cannot take that gift of life from the innocent unborn, or we will face God's judgment.

"We stand now as Christian believers on the front line of the struggle for this nation's survival," says Keyes. "We must stand up and bear witness. We must call the nation to repentance of its sin -- its violation of that principle of respect for innocent life."

The House has passed the ban, and the President has promised to sign it into law as quickly as it is presented to him. A Senate vote could come before the end of this week on the bill which, according to several polls, is supported by 85% of the American people.

© 2003 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines