Aborting The Will Of The People
By David N. Bass (09/23/03)
If nothing else, the summer of 2003 has taught us one thing: The Democrats no longer care about national opinion. But then again, that’s become old hat to the Donkey Party.
Examples abound, the most recent being Miguel Estrada who finally threw in the hat earlier this month–despite bipartisan Senate support–in frustration over the Democrat’s three-year filibuster.
Estrada may be gone, but the battle remains fierce, and the GOP needs to batten down its hatches for the fight. The Democrats are out for blood. They’ve taken on the role of Congressional bully and aren’t about to give it up, no matter what the nation says. They’ve been out of power for three years, and lack of power to the Democrats translates into desperation.
That’s exactly what we’re seeing. And the battle is just beginning.
Judicial nominees aside, this autumn’s most important domestic battle will be the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act, introduced earlier this year by Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). Mark my words: this bill will define whether the Republicans will stand up and fight in the coming year or simply sit on their hands and be ground into the dust of the political spectrum.
The ban on partial-birth abortion has successfully passed both Houses (the Senate 64-33 and the House 282-139). President Bush has promised to sign it into law. Gallup polls show 70% of Americans favor the legislation. Yet despite this high degree of support, the Donkey Party has locked its legs, lowered its head, and stubbornly refused to acknowledge the nation’s decision.
Senate Donkey number one is Tom Harkin of Iowa, who introduced an amendment to the bill. The amended bill would give the Senate’s endorsement to the Supreme Court’s Roe V. Wade decision and advise that the ruling shouldn’t be overturned. (Senator Harkin’s web site, by the way, dramatically downplays his pro-abortion stance. I wonder why?)
Sound under-the-table? That’s because it is. But some in the GOP were apparently oblivious to the fact as the Senate accepted the amendment 52-46. On the other hand, the House–to its credit–rejected it outright.
Since the Senate and House couldn’t agree on the Harkin Amendment, a Senate-House conference committee was organized in which a final version would be hammered out, but the Democrats were as stubborn as ever, and the bill was kept in limbo for two months. The Donkey Party finally agreed to a deal in which the Senate would take up the issue in September, debate for eight hours, and then vote whether to “disagree” with the House’s dropping of the Harkin Amendment. Once the conference committee reaches an agreement, the bill will go back to the Senate for a final vote.
But according to comments Harkin made to Roll Call, even that might not end the ordeal. Harkin said he might try a filibuster if the new bill doesn’t contain his amendment. So even if the Senate finally approves the bill without the amendment (and though the nation definitely approves the bill without the amendment), Harkin is still prepared to throw a wrench into the machinery if he doesn’t get his way.
The Democrats aim to kill, no pun intended. Now is the time for the Republicans to show true grit. We already have many honorable men such as Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) and Representative Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) working hard on this issue –and the Republican Party needs to be solidly united in representing what the country wants.
As is their custom, if the bill passes the Senate, pro-abortion groups have already vowed to challenge it in their pet branch, the judiciary. They’re finding it difficult to get their legislation through elected officials, so now they resort to the unelected ones–how very honorable. This proves again that to most Democrats it’s perfectly acceptable to adjudicate morality–as the Supreme Court did in Roe V. Wade and Lawrence V. Texas. But to legislate morality? Everyone knows that’s immoral! (Even though all laws regulate our actions and thus legislate morality.)
The nation has wanted partial-birth abortion ban from the get-go. It is a gruesome procedure that destroys the child’s life at the very gateway of life outside the womb. Five to seven months into the pregnancy–the time when partial-birth abortions are committed–the child can curl as her mother moves, stretch when her mother rests, make an impressively hard fist, and can experience vision, hearing, taste and touch.
Anyone who would support such a procedure doesn’t deserve to walk the halls of Congress, let alone have a say in moral issues. It’s time the nation held the Democrats responsible for blatantly ignoring the will of the people.
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