Dan Coats: “I will comment on another article in the New York Times which is titled, ``An Abortion Rights Advocate Says He Lied…”

“I will comment on another article in the New York Times which is titled, ``An Abortion Rights Advocate Says He Lied About Procedure'' of partial-birth abortions. Many here remember the very heated and controversial and difficult and emotional debate that we had on this floor in attempting to override the President's veto of the partial-birth abortion bill passed, again on a bipartisan basis, in both the Senate and the House but vetoed by the President on the grounds that this was a rare procedure, it rarely happened, and, therefore, we should not make a policy which would deny on those few rare occasions, as the President described them, the opportunity to women to avail themselves of a partial-birth abortion. A Planned Parenthood news release of November 1, 1995, which was cited by many on this floor as the basis for the fact that this is rare, said, ``The procedure is extremely rare and done only in cases when the woman's life is in danger or in cases of extreme fetal abnormality.'' The President cited that and quoted medical experts that said that this was a rare procedure and used that as the basis for his veto of the bill, which prevented us from passing a ban against partial-birth abortions.”