Planned Parenthood of New York City in the News

NEWS ARTICLE, “ABORTION RULING SENDS SHOCKWAVES," BY STEPHEN WITT, BROOKLYN COURIER LIFE PUBLICATIONS (04/26/07)
 
Pro-life advocates call it partial-birth abortion. Pro choice advocates call it Intact Dilation and Extraction (IDX).

Either way, last week's 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding the 2003 federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act appears to have ramifications on the state's abortion laws.

Under state law, abortions are permitted for up to 24 weeks or six months after pregancy. It is also permitted after 24 weeks if the woman's health or life is in danger.

The partial-birth or IDX abortion procedure is usually done in the second trimester, from 18 to 26 weeks.

According to federal statute definitions accompanying the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, it involves partially delivering the fetus vaginally and then ensuring its death.

The act also wrote an exception to the law - that being when a woman's life was at risk.

However, ever since the Ban Act, it has been contested in several state courts that the law does not include having a woman's health at risk as well as her life.

Additionally, pro-choice advocates argue the ban goes against the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade judicial opinion that most laws against abortion violated a woman's constitonal right to privacy.

The central holding of Roe v. Wade was that abortions are permissible for any reason a woman chooses, up until the "point at which the fetus becomes 'viable,' that is, potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid.

Viability is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks.

The present statute [Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act] is directed only at a method of abortion, rather than at preventing any woman from obtaining an abortion.

Thus the recent Supreme Court decision was hailed by pro-life advocates and denounced by pro-choice advocates.

"The American public should be outraged by this unprecedented intrusion into the private relationship between a woman and her doctor," said Joan Malin, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of New York City.

"For the first time ever, the Supreme Court told women that politicians, not doctors, will make their medical decisions for them. Make no mistake: This ban is part of a larger agenda to criminalize abortion. This ruling opens the door to increased state and federal attempts to limit access to safe, legal reproductive health care," she added.

Brooklyn Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who co-chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, followed the Supreme Court decision with reintroducing the "Freedom of Choice Act."

The legislation would for the first time codify the rights guaranteed under the Constitution by Roe v. Wade.

If passed, the bill would bar government -- at any level -- from interfering with a woman's fundamental right to choose to bear a child, or to terminate a pregnancy.

"The Supreme Court has declared open season on women's lives and on the right of women to control their own bodies, their health and their destinies," said Nadler.

"Overturning a decision only a few years old, the Court has, for the first time since Roe v. Wade, allowed an abortion procedure to be criminalized," he added.

But Brooklyn Rep. Vito Fossella applauded the Supreme Court ruling and noted he supported the law prohibiting partial-birth abortions.

"The [partial-birth/IDX] procedure involves a doctor grabbing the legs of the fetus with forceps and dragging the body, except for the head, into the birth canal," said Fossella.

"The doctor then inserts scissors into the back of the skull of the fetus, which is still alive, and opens the tips to enlarge the wound. A suction catheter is then inserted into the skull of the fetus and the brain is sucked out, killing the fetus. The entire body is then removed.

"This barbaric act is shocking in its brutality and indifference to human life," he added.

Fossella said for a society that rightfully condemns child abuse, partial-birth abortion is the ultimate form.

"I will oppose any measure that allows partial-birth abortion to continue. By upholding the prohibition, the Court also upheld the sanctity of human life," he said.

Fossella also noted that partial-birth abortions represents only about 10 percent -- or 2,300 -- of all abortions performed in the United States annually.