Editor's Desk: Finally, the Ban Becomes Law

By Michael F. Flach
Herald Editor
(From the issue of 11/13/03)

After much anticipation and a tremendous amount of work on the part of pro-life legislators in Congress, President George Bush last week signed into federal law the ban on partial-birth abortion. Congressional approval of the "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003" brought strong words of support, praise and hope from pro-life groups across the country.

"Finally, our federal government has enacted legislation that eliminates the killing of a nearly born child," said Robert E. Laird, director of the Diocesan Office for Family Life. "While there is much to rejoice about with the passage of the ban to partial-birth abortion, this is only one small step toward the elimination of all abortion in this land."

"Despite setbacks, the American people have never wavered in their determination to stop this cruel and unjust practice," said Gail Quinn, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

Quinn also applauded Congress for striking from the final bill "a superfluous and misleading resolution, originally attached by the Senate, affirming the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision."

"No human child should be subjected to such a brutal death," said Quinn. "No woman should have to endure a partial-birth abortion. No society that considers itself civilized should allow it."

"Partial-birth abortion is, for all intents and purposes, an act of infanticide and a violation of the sacred and inviolable right to life of the child, a right shared by every innocent human being," said a statement released by the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

The earlier Congressional vote "confirms the consensus of the overwhelming majority of the American people that killing a child in the process of being born is morally repugnant and ought to be banned," said Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus.

"Abortion advocates in the Senate had earlier succeeded in attaching a deceptive and unnecessary amendment to the legislation expressing approval of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision which ushered in abortion on demand over 30 years ago," said Anderson. "But that amendment was rejected on final passage by both the House and Senate, and with good reason: Roe vs. Wade is extreme and has been used to justify even partial birth abortion."

"It is our prayer that this ban and the debate that surrounds it will continue to raise the level of awareness in our culture as to what is truly abhorrent about abortion," said Lutherans for Life, a pro-life, pro-family ministry.

"Justice has long been denied, for more than a decade, to the boys and girls slaughtered in this heinous manner," said Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family. "But now Congress and President Bush have taken steps to protect those precious lives.

"Abortion proponents who bemoan (and have already filed suit against) this new federal law understand that this is more than a symbolic victory; it is a step toward restoring legal protection and respect for the human dignity of both mother and pre-born child," Dobson said "It is a step toward ending our culture of infanticide.

"We hope that the courts being asked to rule on the constitutionality of this law will see what millions of Americans so plainly see; that the notions of liberty and justice cannot be twisted to convey to us the right to murder our pre-born children — especially when they are mere inches away from birth."— M.F.F.

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