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More Partial-Birth Abortion Information |
The following letter from
NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson was published in the Wall Street
Journal on November 10, 2003.
Partial-Birth Abortion Used on Healthy Mothers
In an Oct. 28 column dealing with the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act,
reporter Tara Parker-Pope asserts that a practitioner "typically chooses it
for medical reasons -- because of concern about bleeding, the need to act
quickly after another type of abortion is started, or because a severe fetal
abnormality makes it difficult to perform another method."
We believe this is a resurrection of old mythology that was propagated by
the pro-abortion lobby in 1995-96. These claims were thoroughly discredited
by journalists and congressional investigators who interviewed partial-birth
abortionists between 1995 and 1997.
The myth suffered a terrific blow in February 1997, when Ron Fitzsimmons --
then and now the executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion
Providers, a trade association of hundreds of abortion providers --
repudiated what he called the "party line," telling the New York Times: "In
the vast majority of cases, the procedure is performed on a healthy mother
with a healthy fetus that is 20 weeks or more along."
Partial-birth abortions are usually performed in the fifth and sixth months
of pregnancy. Keep in mind that in the fifth and sixth months, premature
labor usually results in live birth, and after the fifth month, many
born-alive babies survive indefinitely.
Douglas Johnson
Legislative Director
National Right to Life Committee
Washington
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