Partial
Birth Abortion Ban
A Position Paper of the
Florida Catholic Conference
The Florida Legislature passed a bill in 1997 (as
did Congress) to outlaw an abhorrent procedure, in which a physician stabs
scissors into a baby's skull and suctions out its brains when all but the
head is born. This procedure and the court decision which keep it legal
are beyond comprehension to all who hold life sacred.
The 1998 Florida Legislature, with strong bipartisan support,
overrode the veto by the required constitutional two-thirds majority (92
yeas House) (32 yeas Senate). Immediately upon becoming law, the law was
challenged and a lower federal court struck the law.
An overwhelming number of Americans -- greater than 70% -- support a
law that would ban partial birth abortions except in cases necessary to
save the life of the mother (Tarrance Group Nation Wide Poll, August
1996). Every version of this ban throughout the country has
included an exception to save the life of the mother. The American
Medical Association, which is now on record in support of a ban, and the
American College of Gynecologists have both acknowledged there are no
medical circumstances requiring the partial birth abortion procedure
which is tantamount to infanticide.
Recent admissions by abortion proponents that they issued false and
misleading information on this procedure have led avowed pro-choice
legislators to vote in support of banning partial birth abortions. The
legislation does not outlaw late-term abortions, only this procedure which
allows the partial delivery of a baby for the purpose of killing it
outside the womb. As the reality of this procedure sets in, people of
conscience are compelled to ban it. Even the landmark decision of Roe
v Wade, which gives legal sanction to abortion, specifically left
standing a portion of Texas law which provided, "whoever shall during
parturition [the act of
giving birth] of the mother, destroy the vitality or life of a child in a
state of being born and before actual birth, which child would otherwise
have been born alive, shall be confined in a penitentiary for life or for
not less than five years." (p.709, footnote 1).
Legislators should anticipate, but not be fooled by, a call for a
"health exception." Attempts to include health exceptions are
disingenuous. All acquainted with abortion case law know that "health",
when referencing abortions, includes all factors related to social,
psychological, financial or emotional concerns about a pregnancy. To
include a health exception is to render a bill meaningless.
The real health issue here, and the medical community resoundingly
agrees, is that each step of a partial birth abortion poses harmful risks
to women. Forcible dilation of a mother's cervix puts a woman at risk for
miscarrying future children. Turning an infant into a dangerous and
breech position is capable of causing a life-threatening situation.
Stabbing a child's head in the birth canal, exposes the mother to
potential fatal bleeding if she is scraped by the shards of bone that
become exposed.
The Conference will continue efforts to outlaw this procedure; one
that ordinary people can clearly see is a form of infanticide.
