John Doolittle: “Mr. Speaker I rise today in strong support of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, just as I did a year ago. I would like…”

“Mr. Speaker I rise today in strong support of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, just as I did a year ago. I would like to insert into the Record the following column by Charles Krauthammer, which destroys many of the myths surrounding this issue. Even by Washington standards, the debate on partial-birth abortion has been remarkably dishonest. First, there were the phony facts spun by opponents of the ban on partial-birth abortion. For months, they had been claiming that this grotesque procedure occurs (1) very rarely, perhaps only 500 times a year in the United States, (2) only in cases of severe fetal abnormality, and (3) to save the life or the health of the mother. These claims are false. The deception received enormous attention when Ron Fitzsimmons, an abortion-rights advocate admitted that he had 'lied through his teeth' in making up facts about the number of and rationale for partial-birth abortions. The number of cases is many times higher--in the multiple thousands. And the majority of cases involve healthy mothers aborting perfectly healthy babies.”