Staff Changes at the Executive Committee
We welcome D. August “Augie” Boto to the Executive Committee. In their June meetings, the Executive Committee elected Augie as vice president of convention policy.
His responsibilities include managing the process of review and change in the policy documents of the SBC, its Executive Committee, boards, commissions, and seminaries, including the SBC constitution, bylaws, business and financial plan and SBC entity constitutions, bylaws and charters. Boto, who previously served as administrative counsel to the Texas state prosecutors association, fills a staff opening that followed the recent retirement of Ernest E. Mosley, executive vice president.
Upon Ernest Mosley’s retirement, David E. Hankins, former vice president of convention policy, was reassigned as vice president of Cooperative Program. Among his duties will be directing the ministry of SBC Cooperative Program promotion.
Mr Boto, along with his wife Cindy, and children, Lucas (15), Matt (12), and Grace (6) moved to Nashville in July and report a smooth transition.
“We’re excited about the team God has put together,” Morris H. Chapman, SBC Executive Committee president and chief executive officer, said.
Overriding the Partial-birth Ban Veto
by Tom Strode
It is uncertain if enough United States senators will change their minds to override a veto of the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act, but pro-lifers are making a diligent effort in anticipation of the expected September vote.
While the House of Representatives voted July 23 for the second time to override President Clinton’s veto of the bill, the Senate has yet to achieve in any of its votes the two-thirds majority necessary. The last time the Senate voted on the measure, in May 1997, a 64-36 roll call for passage fell three votes short of the ban supporters’ goal.
Pro-life senators and organizations are seeking to find the necessary three votes to outlaw an abortion procedure in which the baby is nearly completely delivered before being killed.
The thirty-six senators who voted against the bill the last time the Senate considered it are:
Republicans: Susan Collins, Maine; John Chafee, Rhode Island; James Jeffords, Vermont; Olympia Snowe, Maine.
Democrats: Daniel Akaka, Hawaii; Max Baucus, Montana; Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico; Barbara Boxer, California; Richard Bryan, Nevada; Dale Bumpers, Arkansas; Max Cleland, Georgia; Christopher Dodd, Connecticut; Richard Durbin, Illinois; Russell Feingold, Wisconsin; Dianne Feinstein, California; John Glenn, Ohio; Bob Graham, Florida; Tom Harkin, Iowa; Daniel Inouye, Hawaii; Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts; Bob Kerrey, Nebraska; John Kerry, Massachusetts; Herb Kohl, Wisconsin; Frank Lautenberg, New Jersey; Carl Levin, Michigan; Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut; Barbara Mikulski, Maryland; Carol Moseley-Braun, Illinois; Patty Murray, Washington; Jack Reed, Rhode Island; Charles Robb, Virginia; Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia; Paul Sarbanes, Maryland; Robert Torricelli, New Jersey; Paul Wellstone, Minnesota; Ron Wyden, Oregon.
The legislation allows an exception for the procedure to be used when the life of the mother is endangered.
Abortion Horror
The Arizona Board of Medical Examiners voted in July to suspend the medical license of abortionist John I. Biskind, according to a July 20 AP report. Biskind was accused of a botched attempt to abort a teenager’s full-term baby in June, and causing the April death of Louann Herron, who, “died from a ruptured uterus caused by a medical instrument.”
