Senate Blocks Tiller Resolution
The Senate recently blocked a resolution that condemns violence against abortion providers.
Opposition came from some Republicans and pro-life senators who objected to some of the language in the measure.
The resolution states in part that "health care employees have suffered threats and hostility to provide crucial services" and "recognizes that acts of violence should never be used to prevent women from receiving reproductive health care."
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Pro-life groups contend that the language does not stop at only decrying violence but goes further to pay tribute to abortion providers and their services.
The sponsors of the bill, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), were advised to eliminate any mention of abortion to pass the measure, but they refused.
The measure comes in the wake of the murder of late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, who was shot dead on May 31while serving as an usher at his church in Wichita, Kan.
Soon after his death, the U.S. House approved a resolution that condemns the murder, offers condolences to the family, and states that violence is never an appropriate response to a difference in beliefs.
The House measure makes no mention of abortion.
Meanwhile, the measure blocked in the Senate makes "reproductive health care," or abortion, central to the resolution.
"I realize that the issue of reproductive choice is divisive and that there are many heartfelt feelings on both sides of the aisle," said Shaheen in a statement earlier. "However, I was hopeful that, regardless of our differences of opinion on this sensitive issue, the Senate could come together and pass a resolution that rejects the use of violence against women's health care providers."
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, meanwhile, praised the senators for standing "strongly against an effort to glorify" abortion.
"Like us, they realize that just as violence cannot be tolerated, neither can any effort to exalt those who practice it against the unborn," he said.
