Washington  -  There is no such thing as a partial birth.  Yet for years that has been the justification of the pro-abortion community for an abhorrent procedure.

In a partial-birth abortion, labor is induced and the baby is turned around in the womb for a feet-first breach delivery.  The baby is delivered until it is three inches from taking its first breath.  I’m not comfortable describing what happens next in detail, but the abortion procedure is then performed with a scalpel and a suction tube.  Since the baby is not fully delivered, it is not protected under the law and has no rights.  Its life is taken because of a loophole. 

Partial-birth abortions, also known as dilation and extraction or D&X, are conducted late in the pregnancy term.  They are never necessary, and they are undeniably inhumane.
I have long said that there is no place in our civilized society for this terrible practice.  Most of my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives agree with me, because abortion is not a partisan issue – it is a moral one.

Since the 104th Congress first voted to ban partial-birth abortions, we in the House have voted four times to ban partial-birth abortions, and twice to override President Clinton’s veto.  The legislation has never been close to becoming law.  Once again this year, in the 108th Congress, we have passed a bill, but this time is different.
This time the U.S. Senate has voted with us, and we have completed a conference report that reconciles our two bills.  The legislating is done.  The next stop for a ban on partial-birth abortions is President Bush’s desk, and he will sign the measure.
The ban on partial-birth abortions is a victory for American morality.  It is a victory we desperately need.

All around us, the value Americans place on life seems to be corroding.  Whether it is a perceived right to an abortion, a video game in which the objective is to amass the murder of increasingly realistic characters, or a real violent crime in the streets of one of our Southern Missouri communities, premature death is too commonplace.
These messages are reinforced to our children through the entertainment industry.  Words I dared not utter in my parent’s home as a child now enter my home via the television.  Violence and gratuitous depictions of man’s inhumanity to man are broadcast around the world.  The world is, in many ways, a meaner place.

And I can see how – young, confused, and scared to seek counsel – a troubled woman might think having an abortion at any stage of a pregnancy is justifiable.  When conflict clouds your own life, it becomes much easier to devalue the lives of others.  Sadly, this mistaken outlook on the world can sometimes apply to the flesh-and-blood child a mother carries in her womb. When an abortion seems like the best or the easiest way out for a mother, there are two people who need help – and this law will hopefully help both of them.

For some, partial-birth abortion is the solution to a problem that shouldn’t exist in the first place.  Stronger families, closer communities, better laws, and a moral message to young Americans are the antidotes to the despair of an unwilling mother.  With this cure, we can change lives, and we can save them.

Congress will play a large part in the continuing work to reduce abortion in America.  I suspect the courts will as well.  But I will persevere in my efforts to shape our laws to reflect a moral code for all Americans, including the unborn, and give them their best chance to overcome the growing trend of devalued human life.

There is no such thing as a partial birth – that idea is a myth constructed by scientists who wrongly tread on low moral ground.  But there is such a thing as a life cut short, a future unfulfilled, and what the poet Langston Hughes called a dream deferred.  I sincerely hope this law is the first step in a long journey to end all of that for our children, their futures, and their dreams.