Partial-Birth Abortion: Is it ever needed?

What is a partial-birth abortion?
A partial-birth abortion is an abortion technique used in which the person performing the abortion partially vaginally delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus and completing the delivery. Registered nurse Brenda Pratt Shafer witnessed several partial-birth abortions and described the procedure: "The baby's body was moving. His little fingers were clasping together. He was kicking his feet. All the while his little head was still stuck inside. The abortionist took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the back of the baby's head. Then he opened the scissors up. Then he stuck the high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby's brains out."

Is a partial-birth abortion ever the only way to preserve a mother's physical health?
Pro-abortion advocacy groups have made strenuous efforts to persuade the public that partial-birth abortions are necessary to protect the lives or health of pregnant women, and many have uncritically accepted this claim at face value. However, these claims are coming under increasingly sharp challenge from prestigious medical experts.

At a briefing on Capitol Hill, PHACT member Dr. Curtis Cook, an ob/gyn perinatologist with the West Michigan Perinatal and Genetic Diagnostic Center, said that partial-birth abortion:

It is never necessary to preserve the life or the fertility of the mother, and may in fact threaten her health or well-being or future fertility. In my practice, I see these rare, unusual cases that come to most generalists' offices once in a lifetime- they all come into our office. We see these every day....The presence of fetal disabilities or fetal anomalies are not a reason to have a termination of pregnancy to preserve the life of the mother- they do not threaten the life of the mother in any way....[and] where these rare instances do occur, they do not require the death of the baby or the fetus prior to the completion of the delivery.

How often are partial-birth abortions performed?
According to Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, and other sources, it appears that Partial-Birth Abortions are performed 3,000 to 5,000 times annually. (Even those numbers may be low.) Based on published interviews with numerous abortionists, and interviews with Fitzsimmons, the "vast majority" of partial-birth abortions are performed in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy, on healthy babies of healthy mothers. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reported 9,865 abortions were performed after 21 weeks gestation for selected states in 1997 the most recent statistic available. Second and third trimester abortions are being performed in the US in large numbers. Let's work together to end partial-birth abortion giving women and unborn children better medical choices.