NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      WASHINGTON, DC (CWNews.com) - The US Senate on Friday failed to muster enough votes to override President Bill Clinton's veto of a ban on partial-birth abortions.

      The Senate voted 64-36 in favor of the override, but needed three more to reach the required two-thirds majority. Four Republicans voted with 32 Democrats to sustain the veto, while 13 Democrats and 51 Republicans voted for the override. The House had previously approved the veto override.

      The sponsor of the override in the Senate, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, pleaded with his colleagues, "Let the baby live." Santorum rebuffed pro-abortion arguments for the procedure which takes the lives of babies near full term, asking "Why is it healthier for the mother to insert a pair of scissors into the baby's skull, fracturing and shattering that skull inside the mother, causing potential harm to that mother by doing so?" he asked. "There can be no rationale for destroying this little baby by executing this little baby at that point in time when it is almost born," Santorum said.