Federal Legislation Update

Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act- Legislation banning partial-birth abortion, H.R. 760, has passed the House Judiciary Committee and is waiting for a vote on the House floor. President Bush has promised to sign this legislation when it reaches his desk.

The House version of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (H.R. 760) is sponsored by Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. It currently has 159 sponsors and co-sponsors. It is identical to S. 3, except for the Harkin Amendment added by the Senate.

H.R. 760 is the same text as that passed by the House of Representatives on July 24, 2002, by a lopsided bipartisan vote of 274-151. But the Democratic Senate leadership, at that time holding majority control, refused to allow that bill to come up for a vote during 2002, and it died at the end of the 107th Congress.

In earlier years, Congress approved national bans on partial-birth abortion twice, but they were vetoed by President Clinton. On each occasion, the House voted to override the vetoes, but supporters fell short of the necessary two-thirds majority in the Senate.

Human Cloning Prohibition Act - The U.S. Senate has yet to take any action on S. 245, sponsored by Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) after a virtually identical bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 241-155 on February 27, 2003. President Bush has backed this legislation and has promised to veto any legislation that would allow the cloning of human embryos.

President Bush commended the House's action and urged the Senate to approve the ban as well. "Like most Americans, I believe human cloning is deeply troubling, and I strongly support efforts by Congress to ban all human cloning," Bush said in a written statement. "We must advance the promise and cause of medical science, including through ethical stem cell research, yet we must do so in ways that respect human dignity and help build a culture of life. I urge the Senate to act quickly on legislation banning all human cloning."

Unborn Victims of Violence Act- The murders of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner, have re-ignited the drive to pass legislation known as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. This legislation would recognize that when a criminal commits a federal crime against a pregnant woman and injures or kills her unborn child, he has claimed two victims.

Legislation was introduced in early May in both the House (H.R. 1997) and the Senate (S. 1019) in an attempt to protect women and their unborn children. Members of Laci and Conner Peterson's family have written a letter in strong support of this legislation saying that these bills are "very close to our hearts."

For more information on prolife legislation, please visit the Right to Life of Michigan web site at www.rtl.org.