Saturday, April 25, 2020

Partial Birth Abortions Essays - Fertility, Gender Studies

Partial Birth Abortions Recently, congress has been going over the issue of partial birth abortions. A partial birth abortion is performed in the second and third trimesters. A partial birth abortion entails (1) inducing a breech delivery with forceps, (2) delivering the legs, arms, and torso only, (3) puncturing the back of the skull with scissors or a trochar, (4) inserting a suction curette into the skull, (5) suctioning the contents of the skull so as to collapse it, (6) completing the delivery. A partial breech delivery is not considered a birth at common law, where it is the passage of the head that is essential (Abortion Laws). Congress is currently in the process of passing the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2000. Both bills, H.R. 3660 and S. 1692, prohibit any physician from knowingly performing a partial-birth abortion, unless it is necessary to save the mothers life that is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury. There are many people that oppose bans on safe abortion procedures. Although these bans are characterized as a single, late procedure, the bans are in fact not limited to any stage of pregnancy. They define the conduct to be banned so broadly as to reach an array of safe and common methods of abortion. Doctors have testified repeatedly and courts across the country have found that the bans can apply to all procedures used in the second trimester of pregnancy and even to some first trimester abortions. A court stated that the law has the effect of inhibiting the vast majority of abortion procedures and would significantly increase the health risks for a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus (ACLU). Some say that the government should stay out of the operating room. Legislators are not trained to make medical decisions. Therefore, politicians should not regulate medicine in a way that undermines the safety of patients. They should leave decisions about the best surgical techniques for abortion in the hands of doctors, patients, and their families. The bans use of non-medical terminology simply shows that politicians should not try to manage the practice of medicine (ACLU). The ACLU opposes bans on safe abortion procedures because they infringe on constitutional protections for reproductive freedom. Federal and state courts have found the bans are unconstitutional for their wide-reaching prohibition on the safest, most common methods of abortion; for the harm they impose on womens health by restricting physician discretion; and for their vagueness. The partial birth abortion bans threaten the right to choose abortion. The Supreme Court has held that the government may not prohibit a woman from making the ultimate decision, in accordance with her won conscience and moral imperatives, to have an abortion. Abortion restrictions are unconstitutional if they place an undue burden on a womans right to choose abortion. That is, if they would place a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking abortions (ACLU). The partial birth abortion bans pose not only a substantial obstacle, but an absolute barrier to many abortions that are now safe and legal. After reviewing evidence that the language of the bans reach most methods of abortion, a court in Iowa held that the ban in that state was unconstitutional as a matter of law (ACLU). Partial birth abortion bans compromise womens health and drastically limit physicians discretion to choose the most medically appropriate abortion method for their patients. A federal court in Florida found that the bans would have an effect of denying women appropriate medical care. Similarly, a court in Montana found it would increase the amount of risk and pain to the woman (ACLU). Most of the proposed bans unconstitutionally fail to provide adequate life and health exceptions. Most partial birth abortion bans apply throughout pregnancy and yet contain no health exception whatsoever and a dangerously inadequate life exception. The government may never prohibit abortions that are necessary to preserve womens lives or health. A court in Illinois said the law would impermissibly require a women to remain pregnant eve in the face of serious health concerns (ACLU). Anti-choice legislators are also introducing bans on abortion procedures. Like the federal bill, most of the state measures are so vague and so broad that they cover a

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