Partial Birth Abortion Not Necessary To Protect A Woman’s Health & May Bring Harm.

Does the partial birth abortion ban have a health exception and is it necessary to protect a woman’s health.  Here’s what the law, which is being argued at the Supreme Court says:

"This subsection does not apply to a partial-birth abortion that is necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself.”

That's a health exception, but not the kind that abortion advocates are talking about.  Most people probably think it refers to the physical threat that the pregnancy and the unborn pose to the mother.  But abortion advocates mean the health risk that doing the abortion itself presents to the mother, not necessarily the risk the unborn presents to the aborting mother.  I guess this is an admission that abortion may be legal, but that doesn’t mean it was safe in the 20 years before partial birth abortion became legal.

Americans United for Life’s Clark Forsythe says that “The medical record in these cases shows that no reliable medical evidence exists showing that partial-birth abortion is either safe or effective for any maternal or fetal condition.”  There have been plenty of witnesses, but none of those witnesses or the AMA or the College of Ob-Gyns have been able to point to an instance necessitating partial birth abortion. 

What’s worse is that it may present complications for the mother.  Forsythe says, “In addition, partial-birth abortion could have serious health risks for women.  No studies exist regarding the safety or effectiveness of partial-birth abortion.  There is no credible medical authority, except the personal, subjective opinions of individual doctors in this case, that partial-birth abortion is ever needed to protect the physical health of the mother.  The procedure is supported by nothing more than unsubstantiated personal opinions of doctors who profit from the procedure.”

Mailee Smith an attorney with AUL, who co-authored the briefs in the Supreme Court, stated, “The medical evidence actually supports multiple possible dangers from partial-birth abortion.  These risks include heightened risk of placenta previa and pre-term birth in future pregnancies, heightened risk of maternal laceration, increased risk of infection, and heightened risk of uterine trauma”. 

Smith continued, “The medical evidence for partial-birth abortion presented to the three trial courts in this case never rose above the ‘poor’ grade in the scale utilized to measure scientific evidence.  Partial-birth abortion was performed on the personal intuition of a few abortion providers—the same ‘evidence’ used by the Court when it approved PBA in 2000.  The Court’s casual deference to the subjective whim of abortion providers allows abortion providers to thumb their nose at evidenced-based medicine.”

Partial Birth Abortion is never necessary, may actually harm a woman’s health and it does have a life of the mother exception