Babies Not Only Die But Suffer Excruciating Pain During Dismemberment Abortion

Legislation
National Right to Life

Editor’s note. These are excerpts from the remarks of Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) delivered today during House debate on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

Overwhelming majorities of Americans—some 60%-64% according to pollsters—support legal protection for pain-capable unborn children.

Today we know that unborn babies not only die but suffer excruciating pain during dismemberment abortion—a cruelty that rips arms and legs off a helpless child.

A former abortionist, Dr. Anthony Levatino, testified before Congress that he had performed 1,200 abortions—over 100 late-term abortions up to 24 weeks.

Dr. Levatino described what the abortionist actually does to the helpless child. 

“Imagine if you can that you are a pro-choice obstetrician/gynecologist like I was.” Using a Sopher 13” clamp with rows of ridges or teeth, “grasp anything you can” inside the womb.

“Once you’ve grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard—really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about six inches long. Reach in again and grasp anything you can…and out pops an arm.” He noted that “a second trimester D&E abortion is a blind procedure.” He said, “Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs.”

Madame Speaker, even U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy gets it. In his dissent to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000 Stenberg v. Carhart decision, Justice Kennedy observed that in D&E dismemberment abortions, 

“The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off.” Justice Kennedy added in the Court’s 2007 opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart that D&E abortions are “laden with the power to devalue human life…”

Even if pain wasn’t present, dismembering a child is violence against children and inhumane. But these babies actually suffer.

Dr. Robert White, professor of neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve University, said an unborn child at 20 weeks gestation “is fully capable of experiencing pain…without question, (abortion) is a dreadfully painful experience…”

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Ohio Right to Life’s Dismemberment Abortion Ban Clears Ohio Senate

Legislation to Shield Unborn Babies from Dismemberment

By Ohio Right to Life Alert

National Right to Life

On Thursday, Ohio Right to Life’s Dismemberment Abortion Ban (S.B. 145) was overwhelmingly approved by the Ohio Senate, 24-9. The legislation, which is sponsored by Senators Matt Huffman (R-Lima) and Steve Wilson (R-Maineville), is being heralded by Ohio Right to Life as the next step in the national strategy to end abortion. 

The passage of the bill coincides with the 50th anniversary of Ohio Right to Life’s founding. In more recent history, Ohio Right to Life has successfully advocated for the enactment of 18 pro-life laws. Since 2010, abortions have dropped 25 percent in Ohio, falling to a 39-year record-low in 2015.

“For the first time since the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, we’re advancing legislation that addresses the brute force of abortion head-on,” said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life said, “Every year in Ohio, thousands of babies are brutally dismembered by the abortion industry, ripped limb from limb and extracted piece by piece. Ohio Right to Life applauds the Ohio Senate for taking us one giant step closer to adding this game-changing pro-life law to the record.”

Dismemberment abortion is a procedure in which the abortionist first dilates the woman’s cervix and then uses steel instruments to dismember and extract the living baby from the uterus. In 2015, the Ohio Department of Health reported nearly 3,000 D&E abortions in the state of Ohio.

The Dismemberment Abortion Ban is built in part on the precedent set in Gonzales v. Carhart (2007) which upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, scaling back the scope of Roe v. Wade. In the Court’s opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court’s swing-vote on abortion, described what occurs in a D&E abortion: “[F]riction causes the fetus to tear apart. For example, a leg might be ripped off the fetus…” He continued, “No one would dispute that for many, D&E is a procedure itself laden with the power to devalue human life.”

The Ohio House is expected to take up the Dismemberment Abortion Ban in the fall when the legislature returns from summer recess.

Ohio Right to Life asks its members to send a letter of support to their state representatives by using its Legislative Action Center at www.ohiolife.org

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Dismemberment Abortion Ban Delayed by Veto Threat from Pro-Abortion Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf

By Maria Gallagher, Legislative PAC Director
Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation

It’s a practice so horrific, it is painful to even describe.

Dismemberment abortion is a ghastly method by which the life of an innocent preborn child is ended, violently, brutally—at a time when she may be developed enough to grasp with her hands, suck her thumb, and feel pain.

Statistics indicate 1,550 of our Commonwealth’s preborn children died from dismemberment abortion in 2014, the latest year for which figures are available from the state Health Department

Former abortionist George Flesh once wrote, 

“Tearing a developed fetus apart, limb by limb, is an act of depravity that society should not permit. We cannot afford such a devaluation of human life, nor the desensitization of medical personnel it requires” http://articles.latimes.com/19 09-12/local/me-2729_1_human-life

In his dissent to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000 Stenberg v. Carhart decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy explained dismemberment abortion this way:

“The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn apart limb by limb. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off. The process of dismembering the fetus continues until it has been completely removed. A doctor may make 10 to 15 passes with the forceps to evacuate the fetus in its entirety, though sometimes removal is completed with fewer passes.

 Once the fetus has been evacuated, the placenta and any remaining fetal material are suctioned or scraped out of the uterus. The doctor examines the different parts to ensure the entire fetal body has been removed.” [Underlining added.]

Over the past year, so many women have come to me, asking when we will see an end to the heinous practice of dismemberment abortions in Pennsylvania. Certainly, there is widespread support for such a ban. Polling last year indicated an overwhelming majority of Pennsylvanians approved of a ban, with the level of support actually higher among female respondents.

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