NEWS STORY: Group faces uphill fight over Clinton abortion veto

c. 1996 Religion News Service ALEXANDRIA, Va.-National Right to Life Committee officials say they face an uphill educational battle in seeking to reverse President Clinton’s recent veto of a bill banning a controversial late-term abortion procedure. According to a poll announced at the group’s annual meeting Thursday (June 20), more than 70 percent of U.S. […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

ALEXANDRIA, Va.-National Right to Life Committee officials say they face an uphill educational battle in seeking to reverse President Clinton’s recent veto of a bill banning a controversial late-term abortion procedure.

According to a poll announced at the group’s annual meeting Thursday (June 20), more than 70 percent of U.S. residents surveyed did not know Congress had passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act or that Clinton had vetoed the measure.


The issue has been a galvanizing point for conservative leaders seeking Clinton’s ouster in this year’s presidential race.

Speaking at the Right to Life convention’s opening session, Douglas Johnson, federal legislative director for the group, said 65 percent of those polled knew nothing of the abortion procedure, which is called”partial-birth abortion”by its critics because the fetus is partially delivered before the abortion is completed.”This is a formidable challenge for us,”Johnson said of the expected vote this summer by the House of Representatives on whether to override Clinton’s veto.

The poll, taken in late May by Wirthlin Worldwide, a marketing research firm in McLean, Va., included a question that explained the controversial procedure and then asked respondents if they believed Congress should ban it except in cases to save a woman’s life.

Eighty-four percent said yes; 11 percent said no, and five percent said they did not know or refused to answer. The poll, of 1,002 adults, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.”If that public sentiment can be galvanized … and focused on Congress, then a law (banning the late-term abortion procedure) becomes possible,”Johnson told about 400 people gathered for a session titled”The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban-Challenging the Conscience of a Nation.” Eleven past presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention and the nation’s Roman Catholic cardinals sent letters to Clinton condemning his action, and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops is co-sponsoring a parish postcard campaign urging Congress to override Clinton’s April 10 veto.

The White House has said Clinton vetoed the bill because it did not”provide an exception for consideration of the health of the mother. The president has consistently opposed late-term abortions except to protect the life and health of the mother.” Both the House and Senate versions of the legislation included an exception concerning the life of the mother but not for the mother’s health, which ban supporters say can be interpreted broadly.

As the June 29-30 postcard campaign nears, one segment of Catholic clergy-Air Force chaplains-have been directed by their military superiors not to participate in the campaign. It was not immediately clear Thursday (June 20) whether chaplains in the Navy and Marines had received similar directions. Army Chief of Chaplains John Kaising said he had not received any directions from the Department of the Army.

Catholic officials had sent a letter to the Air Force chaplains requesting they help to distribute postcards to parishioners.


In response, Maj. Gen. (Chaplain) Arthur S.”Sam”Thomas, chief of chaplains of the U.S. Air Force, sent a letter June 7 to all senior chaplains.”We understand the sensitivity of this issue …”he wrote.”However, your military status and the status of your chaplains, carries with it unique responsibilities and limitations that have been imposed by Congress to insure the separation of our military forces from political issues.” At a press briefing at the National Right to Life convention, Johnson criticized the military directive.”This is not political activity,”he said.”When the chaplains participate in this campaign, it is not government-sponsored lobbying. It is church-sponsored.” But Air Force spokesman Lou Timmons disagreed.”What the Catholics are asking us to do is definitely political,”he said.

Timmons added that any activity in which chaplains were encouraging parishioners to contact the U.S. Congress would be prohibited.”What we’re telling the chaplains is you can’t tell people to send the postcards in, no matter what the issue is,”Timmons said.

Archbishop Joseph T. Dimino of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, released a statement criticizing the Air Force decision.”We are not discussing politics,”Dimino said.”We are discussing morality. … We are discussing the need to stop partial-birth abortions. We are discussing the need to struggle constantly in order to maintain high moral standards in our country.”

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