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Partial-Birth Abortions?

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:33 / 02.10.03

Found this report which says that President Bush has got a bill to sign which would ban 'partial-birth abortions'. But while I'm normally pro-choice, from the language used to describe the procedure it sounds horrific and not in the interests of the mother, so is this a biased report? What are the benefits? How does this differ from when the media normally use the term 'abortion'?

grant

16:43 / 02.10.03

"partial birth abortions" refers to a procedure -- I can't remember the medical name, but it's less evocative -- wherein the fetus is positioned in the birth canal (via induced labor, I think) before the doctor lances it. Terminates it. Makes it no longer a viable fetus. As you can probably guess, it has to be kinda large before this can happen.

It is, as you can imagine, terribly controversial. I think I've read that it's almost never used except in cases of serious medical emergency, but I can't remember my source on that, and don't feel up to doing a search on it right now. For fear of pictures.

Maybe a bit later.

Ganesh

16:50 / 02.10.03

There's a reasonable overview of the procedure (and the issues surrounding it) here.

The majority of abortions occur early on, in the first trimester of pregnancy, but some - for a variety of reasons - are carried out later. The ReligiousTolerance link above provides quite a good summary of the reasons for and against. It's also worth noting that the structure of US healthcare makes this an even more emotive issue, as practitioners of abortion are, effectively, paid per procedure - so some might view them as having vested interests in advising this course of action...

Elbereth

15:10 / 03.10.03

PBA's are usually done only for the mothers health when the baby is already dead (after all, what person would carry a baby full term just to kill it for conveince). The reason that this is gaining popularity as a cause is because a lot of people hate the idea of abortion and would like to do something to stop it. But they can't bring themselves to ban it because it sometimes is medicaly necessary. Also sometimes they think the mother really shouldn't be reproducing (13 year olds and homeless crack addicts). Since this is hardly ever used (i mean .04% is nothing) it will have no real impact but it will make a ton of people feel better about themselves. And it's really nasty to think about. You'd have to be really unemotional to consider it a good thing and argue for it. That's like arguing for miscarriges or amputations.

gingerbop

00:49 / 05.10.03

What is the point in banning it? These women arent doing it for fun; and the vast majority arent doing it cause they dont want the baby. The result- they'll have hystorectomies instead. The difference? It sounds a bit nicer if their brains arent sucked out.

Whatsmore, pro-life campaigners really piss me off. Say they start banning this method, then they get on a roll, and start banning another and another and another, until abortion is illegal. Do they think all these women are gonna just keep their babies? Its gonna go underground, no regulations, women are gonna die. A couple years ago, a friend-of-a-friend got pregnant- she was 14- and she just got as shitfaced on anything she could get her hands on every night until she miscarried. And they think banning abortion will save lives.

Elbereth

20:32 / 05.10.03

the "a friend of a friend argument" always gets to me, it's so poignant and heart wrenching. Yah for abortions!! Rip those fetus out of those wombs!!

Ariadne

21:04 / 05.10.03

Banning abortion will mean women finding their own, desperate ways to get rid of pregnancies. Lots of those will kill or seriously hurt the women involved. Friends of mine, friends of friends of mine, even me.
Which is what gingerbop was saying, I believe.

Yay for abortions, absolutely.

Ganesh

22:00 / 05.10.03

That's like arguing for miscarriges or amputations.

Well, a miscarriage isn't something one has a great degree of control over (it's Nature's way of procuring an abortion) and amputations, like abortions themselves, are generally carried out in situations of life-threatening necessity - as opposed to being played for laughs.

Tryphena Absent

08:33 / 06.10.03

I don't want to read the report because frankly I don't like reading completely biased texts and having heard Bush on abortion I'm not going there. Also I'm feeling quite cheery today so I would like to know if this bill bans partial birth abortion in all circumstances including medical emergencies? I ask because I can just imagine Bush saving the innocent foetus and killing the sinful parent.

grant

15:55 / 06.10.03

In this case, the innocent hydrocephalic fetus.....

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