Thomas Daschle: “the issue of late-term abortion has been a very troubling issue for a lot of us. For the past 6 or 7 months, I have been…”

“the issue of late-term abortion has been a very troubling issue for a lot of us. For the past 6 or 7 months, I have been making an effort to better understand all of the implications and all of the circumstances surrounding this issue. I am repulsed by the practice of so-called partial-birth abortions, but I am also very sensitive to the extraordinarily personal circumstances that many women face as they face excruciating decisions involving their lives and the lives of their potential children. I was troubled by the votes cast last fall, and indicated at that time that I was going to do whatever I could to see if we could find a compromise. Today, I come to the floor with the realization that I could not find a compromise. What I did do was seek out doctors, constitutional experts, people in virtually every walk of life, who have voiced their opinion about this issue. The conclusion I reached was that rather than a compromise, an entirely different approach may be our best solution, not necessarily saying yes or no to what it was others have advocated with their partial-birth-abortion ban because that is a procedural prohibition. My feeling--and the feeling expressed by many experts from whom I have sought advice--was that the pending legislation, the so-called partial-birth-abortion ban would not stop one abortion. This will not end abortion.…”