GOING TO DIE

"The Fetus Is Going to Die"
By Tara Ross

Three challenges to the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban are wending their way through the courts, yet the mainstream media have largely failed to report on the testimony in these cases.

The cases challenging the constitutionality of the ban are currently pending in federal district courts in California, Nebraska, and New York. In addition to these federal cases, a temporary restraining order was recently issued against a similar state ban in Utah.

Normally, the media love to cover a good trial, so it's rather amazing that they have managed to ignore these sensational trials so completely. Press coverage of the trials, to date, has been slim and has consisted mostly of sound bites.

Doubtless they would be front-page news if the testimony offered by witnesses favored, rather than harmed, the arguments of pro-abortion groups. After all, several abortionists have revealed extraordinarily important facts under oath.

Babies are sometimes still alive during the partial-birth abortion procedure. A California abortionist acknowledged that "sometimes the fetus is born alive."  Another abortionist admitted that, before killing the baby by crushing its head, he has "seen the fetus' legs move." Two Nebraska abortionists agreed, affirming that "the majority of [babies] are alive at the time" of the procedure. In New York, abortionists confirmed that the "[f]eet could be moving" and there are "signs of life in the fetus."

Partial-birth abortion creates more dangers than cures for a woman's health. One Nebraska abortionist stated that abortions for "maternal physical health reason[s]" are "fairly rare" in the United States. A New York abortionist agreed that those seeking abortions for medical reasons fall into a "smaller category" than others. To the contrary, abortionists agree that partial-birth abortion creates "risks to the cervix," including "perforation" or "laceration." The mother may be harmed as broken and sharp baby bones tear at her insides. Small pieces of the baby may remain in the uterus after the abortion, leading to "subsequent infection or hemorrhage." Sometimes, the baby's head may become "free-floating" in the mother's uterus, requiring the "blind use of instruments" and "more potential for perforation." A woman could "bleed to death."

This damning testimony is from the abortionists themselves. The government presented even more strongly-worded evidence that partial-birth abortion is never the only option available to protect the health of the mother.

The baby likely feels pain. A New York abortionist stated, "I think that the baby feels it but I'm not sure how pain registers on the [baby's] brain." Another abortionist argued against killing the baby by chemical injection before the procedure: "How do we know that taking this huge instrument and poking it into the baby's heart and injecting a poison hurts any less than my rapidly cutting the umbilical cord or transecting the spinal cord with my scissors?" The abortionists' statements, again, have been backed up with stronger evidence from the government. One witness concluded, "The fetus is very likely extremely sensitive to pain during the gestation of 20 to 30 weeks. And so the procedures...would be likely to cause severe pain."

Abortionists deliberately kill babies that could be born alive. A Nebraska abortionist expressed his discomfort with having a "fetus that you remove and have some viability to it, some movement of limbs, because it's always a difficult situation." He avoids the situation by taking actions that will be "fatal to the fetus," such as "interrupt[ing] the umbilical cord," "break[ing] up parts in the uterus," and "crush[ing] skulls." A California abortionist stated that she prefers to "prevent an eventuality of a live birth." She kills the baby before the procedure begins by administering a chemical agent straight into the baby's heart. However, she noted, such actions are successful only "50 percent" of the time. In Nebraska, one abortionist summed it up, "I mean, the fetus is going to die."

Partial-birth abortion is a gruesome, violent procedure. The testimony of abortionists regarding their actions during partial-birth abortions is gruesome. Babies may be ripped limb from limb and taken from the womb a piece at a time.  If delivered intact, delivery is stopped while the baby's head is still in the uterus. The abortionist then inserts scissors into the base of the neck and sucks the brains out.  Alternatively, forceps may be used to squeeze and collapse the baby's skull.  The trial transcripts are littered with phrases such as  "disarticulate at the neck," "collapse the skull," "separate the [head] from the fetal body," "disarticulation and dismemberment happens," and the "fetus will either continue to come [out] or will begin to break apart."

Most tellingly, the partial birth abortion transcripts reveal abortionists sometimes lapsing into use of the word "baby" rather than the more impersonal "fetus."  This should not be surprising. Abortionists, after all, have better reason than anyone to know the truth of what they are doing.

The media should report thoroughly on this issue. Doing so would ensure that the American public is just as informed as abortionists on the reality and gruesomeness of partial-birth abortion.

Tara Ross is an attorney and a writer residing in Dallas, Texas.