Prolife Victories

Recently the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate took a stand to protect human life on two key issues, partial-birth abortion and human cloning.

Most recently, the U.S. Senate voted to ban partial-birth abortions. On March 13, 2003, the United States Senate voted 64-33 to ban a gruesome abortion procedure known as partial-birth abortion. Partial-birth abortion involves the partial delivery of a fully formed unborn child. After the child is partially born, an abortionist jams scissors into the baby’s skull so that the child’s brain can be removed, allowing the skull to collapse and the dead child to be removed from the mother.

After the U.S. Senate vote, President George Bush said, “Partial-birth abortion is an abhorrent procedure that offends human dignity, and I commend the Senate for passing legislation to ban it. Today’s action is an important step toward building a culture of life in America. I look forward to the House passing legislation and working with the Senate to resolve any differences so that I can sign legislation banning partial-birth abortion into law.”

Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, “I am thankful for the U.S. Senate vote, and I’m also looking forward to the vote in the U.S. House of Representatives along with the President’s signature on this common sense legislation. This has been a long, hard fight, but this year we should see a stop to this abhorrent and dangerous procedure.”

Regrettably, both of Michigan’s senators, Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, voted to allow partial-birth abortions to continue.

On an equally important life issue, the U.S. House voted to ban human cloning. By a decisive, bipartisan vote, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation to prohibit the creation of human embryos by cloning. The vote took place on Thursday, February 27. The House approved the prolife Weldon-Stupak Human Cloning Prohibition Act, 241-155. The act is co-sponsored by Michigan Representative Bart Stupak (D-1). The House first rejected, 174-231, the Greenwood Substitute — a competing measure that the White House had condemned as allowing “human embryo farms.”

Michigan delegation who supported the prolife Weldon-Stupak Human Cloning Prohibition Act included: Dave Camp, Vernon Ehlers, Peter Hoekstra, John Dingell, Dale Kildee, Joe Knollenberg, Thaddeus McCotter, Candice Miller, Mike Rogers, Bart Stupak, and Fred Upton.

Those who voted against a ban on all human cloning included: John Conyers, Carolyn Kilpatrick, and Sander Levin.

Nick Smith from Michigan did not vote.

John Dingell also voted for the Greenwood Substitute – a competing measure which would have allowed human embryo farms.

Now, both bodies are needed to finish what the other has begun. Prolife people are encouraged to communicate with their elected officials about the value of all human life, born and unborn. For timely updates on all prolife issues, please visit the Right to Life of Michigan web site at www.rtl.org

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