The House of Representatives delivered a partial-birth abortion ban feet-first to the Senate, which may not kill the bill but most likely will ignore it to death. The vote in the House last week was 274-151, which is better than pro-life leaders expected. They thought the Supreme Court's 2000 decision to strike down a Nebraska ban on partial-birth would peel away more votes. But the winning majority was only 13 votes shy of the last vote total in favor of making partial-birth abortion illegal. Opponents of the ban picked up only 10.

Abortion advocates claim to be "pro-choice," but they don't want communities or hospitals to have a choice about performing abortions. Some state courts are forcing hospitals to perform the procedure, despite a 1996 law meant to protect health-care professionals and any "health-care entity" from such coercion. In 1998, a number of senators said that they meant for "health-care entity" to include hospitals, but the pressure continues.

Leaders of the House of Representatives are poised to vote next month on a newly tailored bill to ban partial-birth abortion. Why now? Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution, explained to WORLD he needed time to craft the text so it would survive legal scrutiny.