“This decision not only threatens women’s health and the practice of medicine, and the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship, it threatens the fundamental dignity of women,” said Kate Michelman, former head of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Ms. Michelman is referring to the recent Supreme Court decision regarding “dilation and extraction” or “intact dilation and evacuation,” otherwise known as partial-birth abortion.
The abortionist begins the procedure by using forceps to pull the baby’s legs into the birth canal. Then the abortionist delivers the baby, except for its head, which remains inside the mother. Using scissors, the doctor gouges a hole in the base of the baby’s skull and opens the scissors to enlarge the hole. A suction catheter is inserted into the skull, and the baby’s brain is suctioned out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then fully removed from the womb.
By the second trimester, a fetus’s heartbeat can be detected on an external monitor, his fundamental reflexes – including swallowing, sucking, and blinking – are evident, and he has learned to breathe. Yet, this is also the period of pregnancy during which most partial-birth abortions occur.
And this horrid procedure is just as painful as it sounds. When the fetus is between 20 and 30 weeks old, it has more pain receptors per square inch of its body than in any other time – before or after birth. Furthermore, any mechanisms that inhibit or moderate pain do not develop until 30 weeks. Thus, the pain a fetus would feel during this procedure is most likely worse than an older child or adult would feel.
Dr. Paul Ranelli, a neurologist at the University of Toronto corroborates: “At 20 weeks, the fetal brain has the full complement of nerve cells present in adulthood, ready and waiting to receive pain signals.”
It was to combat this gruesome and excruciating practice that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 was signed into law. The law prohibits partial-birth abortions, except when the mother is suffering from serious physical illness or injury. Passed 281 to 142 in the House and 63 to 34 in the Senate, the bill achieved widespread bipartisan support, including backing from Democratic leaders Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
Pro-choice advocates argue the procedure is only performed in these instances; thus, the law is superfluous and unnecessarily limits the rights of women.
However, before this law was enacted the medical reasons that warranted partial-birth abortions were, in some cases, questionable.
Maternal medical conditions included depression, chicken pox, diabetes, and vomiting, as reported in The Los Angeles Times. In fetuses, they included cleft palates, cystic hygroma (both of which can be easily surgically corrected), and cystic fibrosis.
Thus, the partial-birth abortions done for the “health of the mother” or because of a “defective fetus” are often performed for minor, easily correctable conditions.
Even abortionist Dr. Martin Haskell, while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, stated: “I’ll be quite frank: most of my abortions are elective – not medically necessary – in that 20 to 24 week range...In my particular case, probably 20 percent are for genetic reasons. And the other 80 percent are purely elective.”
Consequently, the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is a monumental decision. In a five to four decision, the Court acknowledged the Act does not infringe upon a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, as established in Roe v. Wade.
It is intellectually dishonest to claim women’s rights are being eroded with the upholding of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The only right a woman is losing is the right to have her baby’s skull punctured with scissors and the brain suctioned out.
Even the American Medical Association declared the procedure is “not good medicine” and “not medically indicated.” Former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Coop said, “In no way can I twist my mind to see [partial-birth abortion] as a medical necessity for the mother. And it certainly can’t be a necessity for the baby.”
Amid these debates over medical semantics and women’s rights one undeniable fact remains: four more inches out of the womb and partial-birth abortion would be first-degree murder.