The ban on partial birth abortions
What late-term abortion techniques have been used?
Here are the medical definitions of abortion techniques used during the second and, occasionally, third trimester:
-The most common late-term procedure is called “dilation and evacuation,” or D&E. The woman’s cervix is dilated and the doctor removes the fetus with a combination of suction and pulling with forceps. Exactly how it works can differ from doctor to doctor. Sometimes suctioning out the amniotic fluid kills the fetus before it enters the birth canal; some doctors inject drugs into the fetal sac or cut the umbilical cord first; sometimes the procedure dismembers the fetus.
—A subset of that procedure is called “intact dilation and extraction” or D&X. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists defines intact D&X as dilating the cervix, delivering the fetus feet-first except the head, and then collapsing the skull so it will fit through the partially dilated cervix for delivery of a dead but intact fetus.
—The rarest technique is induction. Doctors inject the uterus with substances that start contractions, and about 24 hours later the woman delivers a fetus usually killed during what is essentially pre-term labor. Unlike most other abortions, it is performed in a hospital and cannot be done before 16 weeks of pregnancy.
Intact D&X is the technique most clearly targeted by the new ban, even though the restrictions also would apply to a headfirst delivery, too.
What are key arguments against a ban?
Abortion providers argue that the ban is so vaguely worded that it could encompass cases when the other techniques are used, too — such as part of the fetus slipping out during a D&E or when complications arise during an induction.
Moreover, the obstetricians group says there are times when intact D&X may be the best procedure to save the life or preserve the health of the woman. The new ban, in contrast, says partial-birth abortion is never medically necessary for the woman’s health.
Exactly how many procedures are at stake with the ban is unclear.
But, almost 90 percent of U.S. abortions occur during the first trimester. Some 7 percent occur during weeks 13 to 15, 4 percent during weeks 16 to 20, and 1 percent later than that, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
NO EXCEPTION FOR WOMAN’S HEALTH
The legislation, which is similar to a Nebraska law the Supreme Court struck down three years ago, imposes the most far-reaching limits on abortion since the high court in 1973 established a woman’s right to end a pregnancy.
It prohibits doctors from committing an “overt act” designed to kill a partly delivered fetus. There is no exception to the ban if the woman’s health is at risk of if the child would be born with ailments.
Supporters argue that the bill applies only to a procedure done late in pregnancy — and relatively rarely — and that the procedure is never necessary to protect the health of the woman.
But abortion rights groups say the law has overly broad language that could criminalize several safe and common procedures, and they fault it for not providing an exception to protect a mother’s health. They also fear that the law will represent the first step in a larger campaign to eventually bar all abortions.
As a result, opponents attacked it in three separate challenges even before it became law, with lawsuits filed Friday in federal courts in San Francisco; Omaha, Neb.; and New York City. Hearings were scheduled Wednesday on all three suits’ request for temporary restraining orders that would block the law from taking effect.
In Lincoln, Neb., U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf indicated Wednesday that he had substantial concerns. “It seems to me the law is highly suspect, if not a per se violation of the Constitution,” he said at the outset of his hearing.
Kopf said the congressional record of the debate of the bill did not reflect “an objective” presentation of the facts.
He also said the law appeared to have a “serious vagueness problem.”
Planned Parenthood sued in San Francisco on behalf of the group and women seeking the type of abortions the law would ban, while the Center for Reproductive Rights filed in Omaha on behalf of physicians. The American Civil Liberties Union sought a similar order in New York.
OPPONENTS’ STRATEGIES
Also Wednesday, an abortion rights group was airing a television ad that says Bush’s signature would erode doctor-patient privacy rights and could represent his first step toward overturning a woman’s right to end a pregnancy. The NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation is spending nearly $500,000 to air ads in Washington, as well as Des Moines, Iowa, and Manchester, N.H., the sites of key early voting in next year’s presidential contest.
And activists, organized by the National Organization for Women, were planning a protest outside the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, where Bush was to sign the bill.
“We won’t stand by silently as this administration attempts to erode our rights,” NOW President Kim Gandy said.
The new bill defines partial birth abortion as delivery of a fetus “until, in the case of a headfirst presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of the breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus.”
Sponsors of the legislation say it is used about 2,200 times a year, principally during the 20th through 26th weeks of pregnancy.
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