05-20-97 Senate Passes an Abortion Bill
Banning Late-Term Procedure

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Tuesday passed a bill outlawing a controversial late-term abortion procedure, culminating several days of emotional debate on the politically divisive issue.

The vote was 64-36, short of the two-thirds majority required to override an expected veto by President Clinton and enact the bill into law.

The bill's lead sponsor, Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) passionately implored colleagues to follow the American Medical Association and support the ban on what abortion opponents call "partial-birth" abortions.

The AMA endorsed the bill Monday after its sponsors, including Mr. Santorum, agreed to technical changes, which the Senate also approved Tuesday. The AMA had declined to endorse it last week and remained neutral.

"We worry so much about the right to choose," Mr. Santorum said in closing the three-hour debate. "What about the right to choose life?"

The bill would outlaw the procedure except when a woman is at risk of death and no other medical procedure can be used to end the pregnancy.

But abortion-rights advocates, including Mr. Clinton, oppose it because it doesn't include exceptions for when the health of a woman is at risk.

"This bill does harm," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), one of the Senate's strongest abortion-rights advocates. "Colleagues, please do not relegate women to the status that says ... their health does not matter."

Ms. Boxer noted that the American Medical Women's Association opposes the bill. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the leading medical organization in women's health care, also objects to it on grounds that it is "inappropriate, ill-advised and dangerous" for lawmakers to meddle in medical decision-making.

In a statement, the AMA said its board decided to support the bill because it has been "significantly changed" to meet the organization's criteria for abortion legislation.

Sponsors said the measure, among other changes, now protects doctors from prosecution when they are intending to deliver a baby but are forced to resort to the abortion procedure to save the mother's life.

"Although our general policy is to oppose legislation criminalizing medical practice or procedure, the AMA has supported such legislation where the procedure was narrowly defined and not medically indicated," AMA executive vice president P. John Seward wrote in a letter to Mr. Santorum.

The National Right to Life Committee welcomed the AMA endorsement, but Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, accused the group of opening the door to "politicians' intrusion into doctors' professional decision-making."

The House must approve the amended version of the bill before it can be sent to Mr. Clinton for his threatened veto. The House earlier passed the ban by a veto-proof margin of 295-136.

Mr. Clinton vetoed a similar bill last year and has promised to do so again because the measure doesn't provide an exemption when women's health is at risk -- a requirement laid down by the Supreme Court.

Mr. Daschle had tried unsuccessfully to fashion a compromise by proposing a ban on a variety of late-term abortions instead of the so-called "partial birth" procedure. But his proposal also would have permitted a broad range of health exceptions. He has said a case can be made that "this abhorrent procedure has to be stopped, regardless of the circumstances."

Mr. Santorum said the changes are designed to shelter doctors from overzealous prosecution. Any doctor accused of performing an illegal procedure would have the right to a review by a state medical board before trial.