Partial-birth
abortions inches from infanticide
In response to Grace Low’s “Ugly reality” (April 16), and without even getting into whether or not abortion in general should be legal, I suggest whoever reads this to go online and look up the definition of “partial-birth abortion,” also known as “intact dilation and extraction.” Looking up images may help you further understand the concept. This procedure is used for terminating late-term pregnancies and involves inducing labor, delivering the child breech up to his or her shoulders, stabbing the child in the base of the skull, and inserting a catheter to remove the child’s brain, causing death. The child’s skull collapses and the rest of his or her body is easily delivered.
While Low agrees that the procedure is “not pretty,” she still advocates for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban of 2003 to be deemed unconstitutional, partially based on its lack of an exception to protect the life of the mother. First of all, partial-birth abortions are never needed, so there is no need for a medical exception, despite what some pro-choice medical professionals may attempt to convey. Even if a pregnant woman in her third trimester becomes ill enough that she can no longer support the growing child within her, that child can simply be born, even if premature, and at least attempted to be kept alive. With current medical technology, the generally accepted viability age is around seven months gestation, which is also the beginning of the third trimester.
What is the point of stabbing a viable child in the base of the skull and vacuuming out his or her brain, as the rest or his or her body flails madly outside the birth canal, then falls limp? Move that child just a few more inches out of that birth canal and the doctor performing the procedure would be charged with infanticide. How disturbing it is that such an act is advocated by some individuals. Oh, by the way, half of those babies are female. So much for women’s rights.
Breanne Vassar
Sophomore
