PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION BAN TO BE INTRODUCED IN W.Va

Legislators in the West Virginia Senate want to send a strong message to the U.S. Congress by banning the partial-birth abortion procedure. Senator Leonard Anderson (District 10) is sponsoring the bill (SB 326), which had twenty-four co-sponsors as of March 24, 1997. SB 326 has been double-referenced to the Health and Human Services Committee (chaired by Sen. Martha Walker) and Judiciary (chaired by Sen. Bill Wooton).

Partial-birth abortion is the legal term adopted and defined by Congress to refer to an abortion method "in which the person performing the abortion partially vaginally delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus and completing the delivery." The method is used in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy, and later. In "House Votes to Criminalize Partial-Birth Abortions" (March 28), the Los Angeles Times described the procedure as follows:

"In the procedure a physician extracts a fetus feet first from the womb and through the birth canal until all but its head is exposed. Then the tips of surgical scissors are thrust into the base of the fetus's skull, a suction catheter is inserted through the opening and the brain is removed."

Thirty-six states are planning to ban partial-birth abortions in hopes of sending a message to Congress that they want this procedure to be outlawed in the United States. Last year, the U.S. Congress passed a partial-birth abortion ban, but it was vetoed by President Clinton. Congress did not have enough votes to override the veto.

Ron Fitzsimmons, Executive Director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers and abortion advocate, recently admitted that he intentionally lied about the procedure when he said it was rare and used only in cases of severe fetal deformity. He now admits that the procedure is performed much more often than the reported 500-600 times each year and on healthy women bearing healthy babies.

West Virginians for Life is the largest single-issue pro-life organization in the state. It works in educational, legislative and political arenas to ensure the right to life for unborn children, people with disabilities and older people. WVFL members seek non-violent answers to current social problems.