On October 21, the Senate (for the third time) approved legislation to ban partial birth abortion. The House approved the legislation earlier this month. The bill will now go to the President for his signature, enacting it into law. If it survives the judicial challenge that is almost certain to follow, it will be the first restriction on abortion since the Supreme Court decision in 1973.

The bill’s wording bans partial birth abortion except to save the life of the mother "whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself." Partial birth abortion is defined in the bill as a procedure in which "the person performing the abortion deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother," and then kills the baby.

We can all rejoice that this negative—a ban—produces a positive: the encouragement by our society of the natural bond between a mother and her child, a bond that begins long before a baby is born. This piece of legislation says that the society into which that baby enters at birth welcomes every new member with all the gifts and all the needs each one brings. The legislation moves us toward assuring each mother that we want to be a community who gives her aid and comfort in the care and nurture of that child. Our community begins with each woman’s family and extends to the church and to the whole society.

We can all be thankful to God to see this turning toward affirmation of the lives of our next generations of children.