Vote Called Political
Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Texas, took the floor to deride the vote as political. He said a compromise bill had been proposed but the House leadership “has gone to great lengths to block any debate and vote on this compromise.… The majority is more interested in scoring a political victory than addressing a genuine concern.”
     Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., has said Clinton’s veto means “thousand of babies will continue to die agonizing deaths each year.…With today’s vote we hope to come closer to ending one of the most brutal, unhuman procedures imaginable.”
     Janet Benshoof, president of the pro-abortion rights Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, said the vetoed bill was flawed.
     “Seventeen courts have determined that ‘partial-birth abortion’ laws have significant defects that render them unconstitutional,” Benshoof said. “The result of this stealth campaign will recklessly endanger women.”
     Under the bill, doctors could face up to two years in prison for performing these abortions. In the procedure, also known as internal dilation and extraction, the fetus is partially extracted, legs first, through the birth canal. Then its skull is drained and collapsed.
     Forces on both sides of the debate martial compelling, but conflicting, descriptions of the procedure and its frequency. Anti-abortion rights groups contend doctors perform thousands of late-term abortions annually, on healthy women carrying healthy fetuses. Pro-abortion rights groups counter that the surgeries are done rarely, and are a valid medical operation.
     The American Medical Association has opposed the process, something that was noted during the debate, but many people are uneasy with a bill that criminalizes medical procedures.