THE PRESIDENT'S TERRIBLE VETO

by Richard D. Land                                                                                     Vol. IX, No. 6, June/July 1996

     President, SBC Christian life Commission

April 10, 1996 was a tragic day both for America and for the Clinton administration. President Clinton has claimed persistently that he wants an America where "abortion is safe, legal and rare," It is never safe for the baby, since she or he is always killed by the "procedure." And since abortion kills a baby every 20 seconds in America (about one of three babies conceived), it is hardly rare. Now, with President Clinton's veto of the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act, abortion is still legal in the United States up to the time of full delivery.

His veto of the partial-birth abortion ban bill means that if there is a distinction between being pro-choice and pro-abortion, President Clinton has crossed the line into the pro-abortion camp. The President has now made it unmistakably clear that there is no circumstance - even a baby who is fully delivered except for his or her head - in which he will make it illegal for the mother to instruct the doctor to execute the child.

The President's often-repeated excuse of the need for an exception for "the mother's health" is a discredited catch-all loophole which has been demonstrated to include any reason the mother so desires. As Dr. Pamela Smith, director of medical education in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Chicago's Mt. Sinai Hospital, has stated, "There are absolutely no obstetrical situations encountered in this country which require a partially delivered fetus to be destroyed to preserve the health of the mother. Partial-birth abortion is a technique devised by abortionists for their own convenience ... ignoring the human health risks to the mother. The health status of women will only be enhanced by the banning of this procedure." In fact, the bill President Clinton vetoed made exceptions "to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury" if "no other medical procedures would suffice for that purpose."

Many self-described "pro-choice" members of Congress have abandoned President Clinton on the partial-birth abortion ban bill and voted to eradicate this cruel destruction of human life. The President's veto leaves him surrounded only by those pro-abortion activists who have never encountered an abortion they did not like, or at least could not tolerate, in abject worship of a woman's "right to choose."

Perhaps the only encouraging thing to come from the President's action has been the outrage it has spawned. The nation's Roman Catholic cardinals sent a joint letter to the President which said in part, "It was instructive that the veto ceremony included no physician able to explain how a woman's physical health is protected by almost fully delivering her living child, and then killing that child in the most inhumane manner imaginable before completing the delivery." In a rare criticism of a national leader, Pope John Paul II condemned the President's "shameful veto" as "an act of incredibly brutal aggression against innocent human life."

Outrage at the President's action has poured into our office from Southern Baptists across the nation. Please contact the President and urge him to reconsider. Pray that God will change the President's heart and mind and that he will repent of his actions.

As the Bible commands, I pray for the President daily. I will pray even more earnestly for him now, because some day, like all of us, he will have to explain his actions to a far higher authority than the court of American public opinion. [Reprinted from Salt.]