The Senate today voted 93 to 0 to send the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act to a conference committee to resolve differences. While both chambers, with strong bi-partisan support, earlier this year passed a ban on partial birth-abortion, the Senate additionally included a resolution approving the Roe v. Wade abortion decision.

Prior to today's vote Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities, issued a letter urging the Senate and its conferees to work for passage of the ban without the Roe v. Wade language. The full text of the letter is available at /prolife/issues/pba/pba91203s.htm.

The following statement was issued by Cathleen Cleaver, Director of Planning and Information for the Pro-Life Secretariat of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

"Today's vote moves us one step closer to ending the brutal partial-birth abortion procedure. It is noteworthy that this vote did not instruct conferees to keep the resolution approving of Roe v. Wade. Polls have consistently shown that most Americans reject most of the abortions that Roe permits. Roe is extreme -- it has been used to protect the killing of mostly-born infants. No child should be subject to this gruesome procedure, and no woman should ever have to endure a partial-birth abortion.

"We look forward to a clean and straight forward ban making its way to the White House, where President Bush has promised to sign it."

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