The United States Supreme Court’s Ban on Partial Birth Abortion
J. Michael Sharman

On April 18, 2007, the United States Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Carhart described two methods for aborting a child after the first trimester of pregnancy.

 The first method they described, the standard “D &E” operation, was not challenged by the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003 and is still legal after the Court’s decision.

The second method described is the  intact, or partial birth, abortion method and the Supreme Court upheld its being declared illegal.

Here is the Court’s description of the “D & E” procedure:

The surgical procedure referred to as “dilation and evacuation” or “D&E” is the usual abortion method in this trimester. … A doctor must first dilate the cervix at least to the extent needed to insert surgical instruments into the uterus and to maneuver them to evacuate the fetus. …A doctor often begins the dilation process by inserting osmotic dilators, such as laminaria (sticks of seaweed), into the cervix. The dilators can be used in combination with drugs, such as misoprostol, that increase dilation. … Some may keep dilators in the cervix for two days, while others use dilators for a day or less.

After sufficient dilation …[t]he woman is placed under general anesthesia or conscious sedation. The doctor, often guided by ultrasound, inserts grasping forceps through the woman’s cervix and into the uterus to grab the fetus. The doctor grips a fetal part with the forceps and pulls it back through the cervix and vagina, continuing to pull even after meeting resistance from the cervix. The friction causes the fetus to tear apart. For example, a leg might be ripped off the fetus as it is pulled through the cervix and out of the woman. The process of evacuating the fetus piece by piece continues until it has been completely removed. A doctor may make 10 to 15 passes with the forceps to evacuate the fetus in its entirety, though sometimes removal is completed with fewer passes. Once the fetus has been evacuated, the placenta and any remaining fetal material are suctioned or scraped out of the uterus. The doctor examines the different parts to ensure the entire fetal body has been removed.

Some doctors, especially later in the second trimester, may kill the fetus a day or two before performing the surgical evacuation. They inject digoxin or potassium chloride into the fetus, the umbilical cord, or the amniotic fluid. Fetal demise may cause contractions and make greater dilation possible. Once dead, moreover, the fetus’ body will soften, and its removal will be easier.

            …

The Court then explained how a  partial birth, abortion is done by quoting a nurse who witnessed the method performed on a 26½-week fetus and who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee:

“Dr. Haskell went in with forceps and grabbed the baby’s legs and pulled them down into the birth canal. Then he delivered the baby’s body and the arms—everything but the head. The doctor kept the head right inside the uterus. . . .

“The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his little feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors in the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out, like a startle reaction, like a flinch, like a baby does when he thinks he is going to fall.

“The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening, and sucked the baby’s brains out. Now the baby went completely limp. . . .

“He cut the umbilical cord and delivered the placenta. He threw the baby in a pan, along with the placenta and the instruments he had just used.’”

Dr. Haskell’s approach is not the only method of killing the fetus once its head lodges in the cervix, and “the process has evolved” since his presentation. Another doctor, for example, squeezes the skull after it has been pierced “so that enough brain tissue exudes to allow the head to pass through.” Still other physicians reach into the cervix with their forceps and crush the fetus’ skull. Others continue to pull the fetus out of the woman until it disarticulates at the neck, in effect decapitating it.

            The obvious question that should come to each of us is not why the partial birth procedure has  been declared illegal, but rather, why has not the D & E procedure been banned as well?

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By J. Michael Sharman Click here for bio and archived articles