[News-releases] NOW Blasts Passage of Abortion Procedures Ban,Denounces Deceptive Use of "Partial Birth" Rhetoric

NOW Press Office
202-628-8669 Rebecca Farmer, x 116
202-785-8576 (fax) 

NOW Blasts Passage of Abortion Procedures Ban, Denounces Deceptive Use of
"Partial Birth" Rhetoric

March 13, 2003

"The Senate's passage today of the deceptively named 'partial birth
abortion ban' should be a call to action for women's rights supporters
everywhere," said National Organization for Women (NOW) President
Kim Gandy. "Proponents of this legislation know that the bill's
provisions are unconstitutional, based on the Supreme Court's decision in
Stenberg v. Carhart. Behind the rhetoric, this
bill is really an abortion procedures ban. It's a political game and an
attempt to send us back to pre-Roe days when countless women died
from illegal abortions."

"You won't find the term 'partial birth abortion' in any medical
dictionary--instead try looking for it in the ultraconservative
rhetoric
manual," Gandy said. "Contrary to what opponents of abortion
rights would have you believe, this bill is not about a specific
late-term procedure. This bill, like each of its predecessors, is
purposely worded so vaguely that it could criminalize even some of the
safest and most common abortion procedures after twelve weeks and well
before fetal viability."

The abortion procedures ban passed by the Senate, which will soon be
taken up in the House of Representatives, is not supported by the
American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists or the American Medical Women's Association. "This
legislation has nothing to do with the best interests of medicine or
women's health. In fact, this ban does not
even include a constitutionally required exception to preserve the health
of the woman," Gandy said.

"Senators who otherwise support reproductive rights allowed
themselves to be caught up in the political rhetoric instead of standing
firm in their commitment to women's rights," Gandy said.
"Senators who voted for the abortion procedures ban disappointed
voters in their own states and across the country."

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