KINDER'S COMMENTARY: PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION DEBATE LEAVES BETTER EDUCATED PURBLIC

An open letter to all pro-life Missourians and hard-working volunteers in the pro-life cause.

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation. We say we are for the union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We, even here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. ... The way is plain, peaceful, generous and just -- a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless. -- President Abraham Lincoln, Second annual message to Congress, Dec. 1, 1862. I write this short days after we fell one heartbreaking senator short of success in our effort to override Gov. Mel Carnahan's veto of Senate Bill 275 banning partial-birth abortions, which had passed the General Assembly so overwhelmingly just four months ago. As one who led this effort, and who came under enormous pressure not to offer the override motion at all, I certainly share in your disappointment, as I watched eight of my colleagues who had voted with us in May switch their votes in September to support the governor. Under our form of representative government, as is true of all of us in elective office, these eight will be accountable to you, the citizens of Missouri, for their actions. Indeed, this will be all the more true than is usually the case, given the one-vote margin.

Far from despair, I am heartened by developments that have unfolded since I introduced the bill last January. You should be, as well. The debate has been enormously educative for the general public. This is, of course, one tremendous advantage of vigorous debate, conducted honestly and fairly, in a democracy. In this case, publicity over a late-term abortion procedure unknown to Americans three short years ago has galvanized the pro-life movement, set pro-choicers back on their heels, forced the discussion away from the abstraction of "choice" and allowed all Americans to see who is, and who isn't, an "extremist."Instead of feeling defeated and discouraged, pro-lifers should feel encouragement that we came within a single vote of overriding a governor's veto for what would have been only the third time this century. Meanwhile, an aroused public will demand -- and get -- action. Neither will this aroused public stand for passage of any half-measure or fig leaf such as that proposed by certain of our leaders, now suddenly awakening to the gaping wound they have so deliberately inflicted upon themselves. Half-measures won't do. Nothing would do more harm to the wounded public confidence in government than to pass a phony ban on this ghastly procedure, one that purports to ban it, while doing no such thing. In athletics, in government as in so many other facets of life, the seeds of future victories are often sown in noble efforts that end in previous defeat. So let it be with us in this endeavor. Abraham Lincoln, from whose example I take such inspiration, lost again and again in his career, including a senate race in 1858, just two years before winning the White House in 1860. God had great plans for him, but before fulfilling them Lincoln was acquainted, repeatedly, with the bitter taste of discouragement and disappointment. Perhaps He does for us, as well, if we humble ourselves in accord with His will. This is why, in floor debate this week, I quoted Lincoln's message to Congress, excerpted above. Let us, then, redouble our efforts, advancing our cause so that it shall "light us down in honor ... to the last generation."Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.