This is a press release from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) in Washington, D.C. For further information on recent developments on the partial-birth abortion issue, visit the NRLC website section on the subject at www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/index.html. A short factsheet, "Key Facts on Partial-Birth Abortion," is posted here: www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/keyfactsPBA.htm.

WASHINGTON (Feb. 14, 2003) -- The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, a major pro-life priority, was reintroduced in Congress this week. Congressional leaders immediately indicated that both houses may take initial action on the bill within the next month or two.

The bill was introduced as H.R. 760 by Congressman Steve Chabot (R-Oh.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, and in the Senate as S. 3 by Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. Senate Republican leaders listed the bill as one of their top legislative priorities.

In January 22 remarks to the March for Life, President Bush said, "My hope is that the United States Congress will pass a bill this year banning partial-birth abortion, which I will sign. Partial-birth abortion is an abhorrent procedure that offends human dignity." The President also called for action on the bill in his January 28 State of the Union address.

Some recent news reports have repeated old, discredited misconceptions about partial-birth abortion. For example, a December 27 dispatch from Gannett News Service assserted that partial-birth abortion "is usually performed in cases when the mother's life is threatened or the fetus is deformed." To read refutations of such myths from multiple sources, including prominent pro-abortion authorities, see "Revival of Some Old Myths on Roe v. Wade and Partial-Birth Abortion," at www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/roevwademyths.html.

The January 2003 Gallup poll found that 70% favored and 25% opposed "a law that would make it illegal to perform a specific abortion procedure conducted in the last six months of pregnancy known as ‘partial birth abortion,' except in cases necessary to save the life of the mother."

Some lawmakers who oppose the bill tell their constituents that they favor competing measures to restrict "late-term" abortions. The bills to which they refer are "phony bans" that are riddled with gaping exclusions and loopholes. For more information on the "phony bans," see www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/backgrounderpba021403.html.

In-depth, footnoted testimony on partial-birth abortion, presented by NRLC to Congress, is posted here: www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/test.html.

National Right to Life is the nation's largest pro-life organization, with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia.

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