Not pro-life administration

To the editor:

I'm a Catholic mother of two and adamantly pro-life. I'm disappointed by our Republican-majority Congress, our president and our Supreme Court.

I believed the 2000 election was the opportunity to obtain a constitutional amendment guaranteeing life to unborn babies. I was shocked to read in the April 20, 2001, USA Today that the pro-life issue was "not a policy priority" for the Bush administration.

Before the 2000 election campaign, the mostly Republican-appointed Supreme Court overturned a Nebraska pro-life statute on partial-birth abortion because it didn't include an exception to allow this procedure when needed to protect the mother's health. President Bush knew this when he promised in 2000 to appoint judges with a pro-life view.

I'm disgusted that the recent Partial Birth Abortion Act passed by Congress didn't include the necessary language to ensure its durability. Democrats had offered the exclusion for protecting a woman's health. But the Republican majority eliminated that section, dooming the bill to be unconstitutional.

Democrats, under the Clinton administration, sponsored the Daschle amendment that would have eliminated far more abortions than the partial-birth abortion ban. Something to reduce abortions is better than nothing.

People are without health insurance, living beneath the poverty line. And unemployment is high. Iraq's war has taken numerous lives, and a recent worldwide poll reported the world no longer sees the United States as a peace-loving nation. This is not a pro-life administration.

J. MARSHALL, Sikeston, Mo.