Protecting Children from Dismemberment in Kansas

by Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director
Priests for Life

On April 7, 2015 -- which was Easter Tuesday, during the most intense days when the Church is celebrating the victory of life over death -- Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas signed into law the "Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act." This legislation, drafted by our friends at the National Right to Life Committee and carried forward in Kansas by our friends there at Kansans for Life, was the first of its kind in the nation, and protects children from the "D and E (Dilation and Evacuation)" abortion procedure, the most common type of abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy.

Since the late 1990s, when the debate on partial-birth abortion was raging, I began writing, speaking, and consulting with doctors and pro-life strategists about the fact that once we protect children from partial-birth abortion, the second phase of the process had to be protecting them from the D and E abortion procedure. I was therefore delighted to be asked by Gov. Sam Brownback to join him for a ceremony in which he repeated the signing of this bill on Tuesday, April 28. (Governor Brownback is a long time friend and ally with whom we collaborated on many projects when he was in Washington.) He made four stops at various parts of the state to have signing ceremonies to raise awareness among the public of the significance of this particular legislation. I had a chance to have a private meeting with him that day, in which I let him know how much of a priority we at Priests for Life are making it to see that this legislation is enacted in as many other states as possible around the nation. Oklahoma quickly followed Kansas in enacting this legislation the week after Gov. Brownback first signed it into law.

Interestingly, news reports, the day I was in Kansas, as well as news reports about this legislation during the months leading up to it, have a habit of saying things like this procedure is one that "the Governor describes as dismemberment". Yet the reason he describes it as dismemberment is that the abortionists describe it as dismemberment. For instance, abortionist Dr. Warren Hern states on page 154 of his medical textbook Abortion Practice, "The procedure changes significantly at 21 weeks because the fetal tissues become much more cohesive and difficult to dismember….A long curved Mayo scissors may be necessary to decapitate and dismember the fetus…"

But opponents of the law cannot even say the word. When the debate was held in the Kansas senate, pro-abortion Democratic Senators Marci Francisco (D-Lawrence) and David Haley (D-Kansas City) spoke, but neither discussed the actual dismemberment method that the law prohibits. And a Planned Parenthood of Kansas and mid-Missouri press release could not even mention the name of the bill which it was opposing, lest people see the word 'dismemberment.'

Instead, these pro-abortion extremists talk about how the law "will greatly hurt women." That's nothing more than projection, from people who turn the other way when females in the womb are being dismembered.

For more information on this procedure, on the law, and on our efforts to protect children from dismemberment, visit StopDandE.com.