This is a congressional alert from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), issued February 5, 2003.

WASHINGTON (Feb. 5, 2003) – In his State of the Union message, President Bush urged Congress to send him the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act so that he can sign it into law. The legislation will be reintroduced soon in both houses. The House of Representatives is expected to pass the bill by a wide margin. But it faces stiff resistance in the Senate, where close votes are expected on crippling amendments. Pro-abortion senators might also filibuster the bill, which would force the pro-life side to muster 60 votes to "invoke cloture."

Senators -- including those who often vote pro-abortion -- must hear immediately from many constituents, demanding approval of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act without weakening amendments.

HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR VIRGINIA SENATORS

• PHONE CALLS: Senator Allen can be reached at 202-224-4024; Senator Warner can be reached at 202-224-2023. Other senators can be reached through the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Once connected, explain that you are a constituent, politely convey your position, and ask for a written response explaining the senator's position.
  
  
• E-MAIL can be sent to Virginia Senators using these hot links for Senator George Allen and Senator John Warner. E-mail addresses for other senators are available from the Senate website at www.senate.gov. Be sure to include your regular mailing address in the text of your e-mails, so that the senators know that the message comes from constituents.
  
  
• FAXES can be sent to Virginia Senator Allen at 202-224-5432, and Senator Warner at 202-224-2023.

Your message to senators should be along these lines:

President Bush has called on the Senate to pass the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, sponsored by Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). Please support this bill. I am strongly opposed to the brutal partial-birth abortion procedure. According to a January Gallup poll, 70 percent of Americans believe that partial-birth abortion should be banned. I urge you not to support any procedural obstruction of this legislation, and to oppose all weakening amendments. I am especially opposed to the "phony ban" substitute amendment that has been offered in the past by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Il.) and others. The Durbin Amendment would allow partial-birth abortions without restriction before a baby has provably reached the point of "viability," and even after "viability" based on abortionists' assertions that the mother is at any degree of "risk" of health problems. This amendment is a complete sham, which would allow abortionists to perform partial-birth abortions even on babies who could easily survive independently of their mothers.

Please also take these steps:

• Urge your fellow citizens to communicate with the senators, too. Utilize newsletters, church bulletins, call-in radio shows, and other means to alert pro-life citizens to this crucial fight.
• Write letters or op-ed essays for local newspapers, highlighting the critical votes that senators will soon cast.
• If you obtain information on any senator's position (including information reported in the press), please forward it to NRLC by e-mail to Legfederal@aol.com (preferred), or by fax to (202) 347-3668, or by regular mail to NRLC, Federal Legislation, 512-10th Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C. 20004-1401.

RESOURCES

A good primer on the issue is the testimony NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson presented to a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and the U.S. House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee in March, 1997, which contains footnoted citations to some of the more thorough journalistic examinations of the issue (including interviews with partial-birth abortionists) and to various primary documents. The testimony is posted here: www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/test.html.

VSHL is the Virginia affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.