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I had a feeling you were going to post that; Slate seems to be "flooding the zone" with pro-partial birth abortion articles, it seems.
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I don't know how that article is "pro" partial birth abortions, since it claims they don't really exist.
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The reason no articles or whatever have been published using "partial birth" and/or Intact D&E is because those are ambiguous terms thrown around by both sides. Partial birth is a realistic way of describing it, but pro-life advocates always seem to want to push partial birth from what it really is (as the baby is being delivered) to what it is not (late term abortions from the 20th to 22nd week onward). This is counterproductive, because the techniques used to accomplish both are different, though in my mind, both barbaric.
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"[Partial birth abortion] requires a physician to extract a fetus, feet first, from the womb and through the birth canal until all but its head is exposed. Then the tips of surgical scissors are thrust into the base of the fetus' skull, and a suction catheter is inserted through the opening and the brain is removed."
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The phrase "partial birth" shouldn't come into play at all. It is a loaded word with no real basis in reality. It is only accurate if you are trying to use it to evoke a kneejerk reaction in people. As such, it has no place in any kind of reasonable debate.
These descriptions make it sound as if the child is in the process of being born. As if the doctors are taking a child who is literally moments away from living outside of the mother and killing it. I'm no a doctor, but don't think that is generally the case. The fact that it
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requires a physician to extract a fetus
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i think is your proof that no child is about to be "born" in the traditional sense. I have a hard time envisioning most women feeling their first contraction and, knowing that soon they will have to give birth, rushing to the abortion clinic as opposed to the maternity ward at her local hospital. Especially since the women in question, apparently, have had nine full months before giving birth to have an abortion. Why would anyone wait until the last and worst possible minute?
The procedure involves terminating the fetus and extracting it intact. But it seems to mention no timetable as to when it is usually performed. Just because the fetus' legs are out doesn't mean there is about to be a child born. Or that if it were removed completely and uninjured it would survive. Remember, most of these procedures are performed on a child with extreme genetic defects.
As part of the procedure the doctor pulls the body out to have easier access to the head. The same procedure can be done while the fetus is still fully inside of the woman.
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The 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.''
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This isn't really going to effect anything except how the procedure is technically accomplished. All this back patting by the pro-life movement amounts to nothing more than empty legislation.
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However, pro-life advocates want to jump on the public revulsion to partial birth and encompass all abortion. Clearly there are multiple battles to fight; pro-lifers want to use the boost from the ban on partial birth to accomplish everything in one fell swoop. Hence the confusion regarding what is partial birth and what is not, a fault of pro-lifers.
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That is what is wrong with this bill. It doesn't really outlaw anything except an easily circumvented method and is also thought to be a stepping stone for the further erosion of a woman's reproductive rights. The ramifications of this "ban" is that nothing of substance is going to be banned and maybe the pro-life movement finds a backdoor way to get abortion criminalized. Sounds like a good use of my tax dollars.