Contact: Dana Cody, Life Legal Defense Foundation, 916-727-4396
NAPA, Calif., April 18 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, upheld a federal ban on partial birth abortion. In its opinion, the Court quoted this description of the procedure by a practitioner of the procedure:
[After bringing the baby feet first through the birth canal until the head is lodged in the cervix,] "the right-handed surgeon slides the fingers of the left [hand] along the back of the fetus and 'hooks' the shoulders of the fetus with the index and ring fingers (palm down).
"While maintaining this tension, lifting the cervix and applying traction to the shoulders with the fingers of the left hand, the surgeon takes a pair of blunt curved Metzenbaum scissors in the right hand. He carefully advances the tip, curved down, along the spine and under his middle finger until he feels it contact the base of the skull under the tip of his middle finger.
"[T]he surgeon then forces the scissors into the base of the skull or into the foramen magnum. Having safely entered the skull, he spreads the scissors to enlarge the opening.
"The surgeon removes the scissors and introduces a suction catheter into this hole and evacuates the skull contents. With the catheter still in place, he applies traction to the fetus, removing it completely from the patient."
As described by a nurse assisting in the procedure:
"Dr. Haskell went in with forceps and grabbed the baby's legs and pulled them down into the birth canal. Then he delivered the baby's body and the arms—everything but the head. The doctor kept the head right inside the uterus. . . .
"The baby's little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his little feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors in the back of his head, and the baby's arms jerked out, like a startle reaction, like a flinch, like a baby does when he thinks he is going to fall.
"The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening, and sucked the baby's brains out. Now the baby went completely limp. . . .
"He cut the umbilical cord and delivered the placenta. He threw the baby in a pan, along with the placenta and the instruments he had just used."
While we applaud the decision of the Court upholding the ban on this barbaric practice, we pray for God's mercy on our country and for an end to the mass slaughter of our unborn brothers and sisters.
Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF) is representing the taxpayer groups in this litigation.
LLDF was established in 1989 and is a non-profit organization committed to the sanctity of human life. For more information, call Dana Cody at 916.727.4396.
