Intact Dilation and Evacuation

The partial-birth abortion procedure is used after 20 weeks (4 1/2 months) of pregnancy — often to six months, seven months, and even later.

Critics have characterized Partial Birth Abortion as an unnecessarily brutal act that no one should tolerate. “You wouldn’t treat an animal this way,”

Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., one of the House’s foremost abortion opponents, said during floor debate. Charles T. Canady, R-Fla., the bill’s chief sponsor, said the procedure was perilously close to homicide.

“The only difference between the partial birth abortion and homicide is a mere three inches,” said Rep. Charles T. Canady, R-Fla. “Most partial-birth abortions are performed on the healthy children of healthy mothers.”

Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
Bill Clinton openly defended his “Final Solution” to crisis pregnancy. Twice he vetoed a partial-birth abortion ban, thereby allowing this brutal procedure to continue with no restrictions.

On December 7, 1995, the United States Senate passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act which would end partial-birth abortions by a margin of 54-44. House members voted 2-to-1 in favor of the ban, 288-139 [Republicans 215-15; Democrats 73-123; Independents 0-1]. When it reached the desk of President Bill Clinton on April 10, 1996, he vetoed the Act, thereby allowing the brutal procedure to continue with no restrictions.

In spite of testimony by medical experts to the contrary, Clinton justified his action with the claim that this procedure affects only hundreds of people and was necessary to protect the life and health of the mother – even though the abortionists themselves admitted its use was purely elective.

Once again on Oct. 8, 1997, the House passed a Partial Birth Abortion Ban by a veto-proof vote of 296-132. The Senate passed the bill in May (64-36), three votes less than the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override Clinton’s veto. On Oct. 10, 1997, President Clinton again signed the veto papers, this time privately and without fanfare in the Oval Office.

Shame on Bill Clinton for vetoing the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban and shame on the Congressmen and Senators who have supported this brutal and inhuman act.

My heart is broken when I think that the American public would elect leaders who would legalize, condone and encourage this brutal murder of babies only seconds before delivery. Their next step is to legalize snuffing the life of an unwanted or imperfect baby moments or days after delivery.

“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” [Romans 1:32]

Partial Birth Abortion Ban Passed into Law
On November 5, 2003, with Bill Clinton out of the way, President Bush signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (S. 3) into law. The ban was later upheld as to its constitutionality by the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart.

The bill passed by Congress allows a partial-birth abortion to be performed if necessary to save a women’s life. But pro-abortion groups and President Clinton also demand an exception for “health” abortions – a huge loophole that would allow partial-birth abortions for “emotional well-being” or “depression.”

In the companion case to Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton, the Court defined “health” to include “all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age.”

The late Dr. James McMahon, who performed abortions on all of the women who Bill Clinton paraded before the public when he vetoed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban testified that only 9% of the 2,000 partial-birth abortions he performed involved “maternal health” [the most common being “depression”]. Another 56% were for “fetal flaws,” ranging from trivial to grave; the most common being Down Syndrome. Over one-third involved neither fetal nor maternal indications, however trivial – in other words, “elective”.

Dr. Martin Haskell, who has performed over 1,000 partial-birth abortions, said that he performs them “routinely” for non-medical reasons, and that 80% are “purely elective.” Medical experts testified before congressional committees that it is never necessary to kill a baby that has been almost entirely delivered to preserve the life or health of the mother.

The American Medical Association’s board of trustees released a report in May 1997, saying there are no situations in which “intact dilation and extraction [known as partial-birth abortion] is the only appropriate procedure to induce abortion.”

“Lied through my teeth”
In Feb. 1997, Ron Fitzsimmons, a leader of the terrorist pro-abortion movement and Executive Director of America’s National Coalition of Abortion Providers, admitted he had “lied through my teeth” in the ABC “Nightline” program in November 1995 about both the number of and the main reason for partial birth abortions. He now says there are far more partial birth abortions performed than was previously acknowledged, and on healthy women bearing healthy fetuses. It was Fitzsimmons’ statistics which claimed only about 500 such abortions, which were cited by President Clinton when he vetoed the ban on partial birth abortions.

Surprise! Surprise! It turns out there are thousands of partial birth abortions performed every year (as many as 3,000 to 4,000 according to Fitzsimmons) – almost 1,500 in one New Jersey abortion clinic alone!

In response to the Ban on Partial Birth Abortion, many abortion providers have adopted the practice of inducing fetal demise before beginning late-term abortions. Typically, a solution of potassium chloride or digoxin is injected directly into the fetal heart using ultrasound to guide the needle.

Partial-Birth Abortion is an Affront to Everything this Nation Stands For.