Date Posted:10:12:37 07/11/02 Thu Author:John Subject: partial-birth abortions
So-called "Partial-birth" abortion is performed in the second and third trimesters and entails (1) inducing a breech delivery with forceps, (2) delivering the legs, arms and torso only, (3) puncturing the back of the skull with scissors or a trochar, (4) inserting a suction curette into the skull, (4) suctioning the contents of the skull so as to collapse it, (5) completing the delivery. A partial breech delivery is not considered a "birth" at common law, where it is the passage of the head that is essential.
Laws to ban this uniquely controversial late-term abortion procedure have been passed in at least thirty states, including: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. The Utah statute applies only after viability (as defined by the statute). Additionally, Massachusetts and Indiana have a specific ban on state funding of these procedures.
As this shows, these abortions do NOT only happen in the first few months, but rather in the last 7-9 months in some cases. I agree that this is both grotesque, and foul, but is also legal in some states. At this point, a baby simply just is not the womens "own body" b/c at this time premature births are possible, and the babies, if need be due to health risks, could possibly be delivered with proper procedure.
I find it hard to believe that a women should have the right to wait 8 months to decide, in the 3RD trimester, whether or not she wants a baby. I can understand the ending of an embryo in the first month or so, but there is a point when it isn't just the womens own body.
thankyou for your time. Regards, John Ridyard
womens body or not -- john, 20:13:01 07/11/02 Thu