Senate targets abortion method

The Senate yesterday passed a bill banning partial-birth abortion and sent it to President Bush, who pledged last night to sign the legislation after two vetoes of similar bans by President Clinton.

“We have a president who has said he is willing to sign this legislation,” said Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican and the bill’s sponsor. “So this is a very, very important day for our country and for those babies who would be the object of this brutal procedure.”

Pro-choice groups plan to challenge the ban in court once the bill is signed.

The Senate cleared the final version of the bill yesterday by a 64-34 vote, with 17 Democrats voting for it and three Republicans voting against it.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina missed the vote. The two other Democratic senators seeking the White House, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, voted no.

“This is a very sad day for the women of America,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat and the leading opponent of the bill.

Mrs. Boxer said the legislation for “the first time in history bans a medical procedure without making any exception for the health of the woman. This is a radical, radical thing.”

The House cleared the bill earlier this month.

Mr. Bush called the proposal “very important legislation that will end an abhorrent practice and continue to build a culture of life in America.”

“I look forward to signing it into law,” he said in a statement.

“We have done this before; this time it’s different,” said Sen. Mike DeWine, Ohio Republican. “This time we have a president who will sign it.”

Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican, said, “This will go down in history as a turning-point day, where we start to recognize that the child in the womb is a child.”

The federal law will be the first to ban an abortion procedure since Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that struck down all state laws against abortion and made abortion a constitutional right.

The new restriction will be challenged immediately in court by pro-choice groups, including the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and the Center for Reproductive Rights, who say they will win because the Supreme Court already has struck down a Nebraska ban on partial-birth abortion as vague and a threat to women’s health.

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