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Reasons for Partial-Birth Abortions: Dr. Martin Haskell
Dr. Martin Haskell, who has performed over 1,000 partial-birth abortions: a family practitioner who operates three abortion clinics wrote that he "routinely performs this procedure on all patients 20 through 24 weeks" (4 1/2 to 5 1/2 months) pregnant.
Dr. Haskell explained that he had been performing dismemberment abortions (D&Es) to 24 weeks:
But they were very tough. Sometimes it was a 45-minute operation. I noticed that some of the later D&Es were very, very easy. So I asked myself why can't they all happen this way. You see the easy ones would have a foot length presentation, you'd reach up and grab the foot of the fetus, pull the fetus down and the head would hang up and then you would collapse the head and take it out. It was easy. . .
And I'll be quite frank: most of my abortions are elective in that 20-24 week range. . . . In my particular case, probably 20% [of this procedure] are for genetic reasons. And the other 80% are purely elective.
In a lawsuit in 1995, Dr. Haskell testified that women come to him for partial-birth abortions with "a variety of conditions. Some medical, some not so medical." Among the "medical" examples he cited was "agoraphobia" (fear of open places). Moreover, in testimony presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee on November 17, 1995, ob/gyn Dr. Nancy Romer of Dayton (the city in which Dr. Haskell operates one of his abortion clinics) testified that three of her own patients had gone to Haskell's clinic for abortions "well beyond" 4 1/2 months into pregnancy, and that "none of these women had any medical illness, and all three had normal fetuses."
Two babies were completely normal and their mothers were healthy. [Nurse Shafer's testimony before the House Judiciary subcommittee, with associated documentation, is available on request to NRLC.
Reasons for Partial-Birth Abortions: Dr. James McMahon
Dr. James McMahon performed thousands of partial-birth abortions, including the third-trimester abortions performed on the five women who appeared with President Clinton at his April 10 veto ceremony.
In June, 1995, Dr. McMahon submitted to Congress a detailed breakdown of a "series" of over 2,000 of these abortions that he had performed. He classified only 9% (175 cases) as involving "maternal [health] indications," of which the most common was "depression."
Dr. Pamela E. Smith, director of Medical Education, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Chicago, gave the Senate Judiciary Committee her analysis of Dr. McMahon's 175 "maternal indication" cases. Of this sample, 39 cases (22%) were for maternal "depression," while another 16% were "for conditions consistent with the birth of a normal child.
Over one-third of McMahon's 2,000-abortion "series" involved neither fetal nor maternal health problems.
In Dr. McMahon's interviews with American Medical News and with Keri Harrison, counsel to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Dr. McMahon freely acknowledged that he performed late second trimester procedures that were "elective" even by his definition ("elective" meaning without fetal or maternal medical justification).
After 26 weeks, Dr. McMahon claimed that all of his abortions were "non-elective" – but his definition of "non-elective" was very expansive. His written submission stated:
Reasons for Partial-Birth Abortions: Dr. David Grundmann Dr. David Grundmann, the medical director for Planned Parenthood of Australia.
Dr. Grundmann himself described the procedure as "essentially a breech delivery where the fetus is delivered feet first and then when the head of the fetus is brought down into the top of the cervical canal, it is decompressed with a puncturing instrument so that it fits through the cervical opening." "no chance of delivering a live fetus."
Dr. Grundmann also wrote that "abortion is an integral part of family planning. Theoretically this means abortions at any stage of gestation. Therefore I favor the availability of abortion beyond 20 weeks."
Dr. Grundmann wrote that in Australia, late-second-trimester abortion is available…." However, Dr. Grundmann said, his Planned Parenthood clinic also offers the procedure after 20 weeks for women who fall into five additional "categories": (1) "minor or doubtful fetal abnormalities," (2) "extreme maternal immaturity i.e. girls in the 11 to 14 year age group," (3) women "who do not know they are pregnant," or those under extreme forms of stress i.e. exam stress, relationship breakup…," (4) "intellectually impaired women, who are unaware of basic biology…," …
https://nrlc.org/archive/abortion/pba/pbafact10.html
Daughter Born At 24-Week-Old Abortion Limit She's A Fully-Formed Human Being' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dglXBuDmLw
Smiling premature baby born at 31 weeks