In September 1993, Brenda Shafer, a registered nurse with thirteen years of experience, was assigned by her nursing agency to an abortion clinic. Since Nurse Shafer considered herself “very pro-choice,” she didn’t think this assignment would be a problem. She was wrong. This is what Nurse Shafer saw: “I stood at the doctor’s side and watched him perform a partial-birth abortion on a woman who was six months pregnant. The baby’s heartbeat was clearly visible on the ultrasound screen. The doctor delivered the baby’s body and arms, everything but his little head. The baby’s body was moving. His little fingers were clasping together. He was kicking his feet. The doctor took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the back of the baby’s head, and the baby’s arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall. Then the doctor opened the scissors up. Then he stuck a high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby’s brains out. Now the baby was completely limp. I never went back to the clinic. But I am still haunted by the face of that little boy. It was the most perfect, angelic face I have ever seen.”

In late second and third trimester partial-birth abortions, it takes three to five days of extreme pain for the woman’s cervix to dilate in preparation for the procedure. The doctor turns the unborn child into the “breech” position (feet first) and pulls the child from the mother until all but the head is delivered. He then forces scissors into the base of the skull and inserts a catheter to suction out the child’s brain.

In the fight against partial-birth abortion, it is necessary to understand and be able to refute the opposing side’s arguments. Many Americans believe partial-birth abortion may be necessary to save the life of the mother. This is not true. Dr. Pamela Smith said, “There are absolutely no situations … which require a partially delivered human baby to be destroyed to preserve the life or health of the mother.” President Clinton argued that partial-birth abortion is necessary to prevent “serious adverse health consequences” to the mother. The mainstream medical community disagrees: There is NO medical necessity for such a procedure. Even the leading authority on late-term abortion, Dr. Warren Hern, said that the procedure is never necessary to preserve a woman’s health. Furthermore, “health,” as defined by law in the abortion context, includes all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familiar and social. This is a loophole large enough to justify any abortion. Another myth is that a partial-birth abortion may be necessary to preserve a woman’s future fertility. Medical experts say it does just the opposite. Dr. Hern said that forcefully dilating a woman’s cervix for three days and turning a baby in utero to a breech position might make it more difficult to carry a subsequent baby to term. Some think that the procedure is not as brutal as it looks; that the anesthesia given to the mother kills the unborn baby. However, leading anesthesiologists in the United States testified that this is simply not true; the anesthesia does not kill the baby. Some people are naïve about the whole issue and think that it is rarely done, and only for the most serious of reasons. Sadly, this is not true either. 1,500 partial-birth abortions were done in one year in New Jersey alone! Furthermore, 80% of them were done on healthy mothers and babies. We do not know the total number of these abortions throughout the country … but even if it were only 500 per state, 500 x 50 would be at least 25,000 babies per year. Practitioners report that the vast majority of these abortions are elective and that some are done to prevent the live birth of a child with handicaps.

Another side of partial-birth abortion is the harmful side effects that go along with it. First, dilating the cervix is very painful, and there are risks of possible infections. Forcing the cervix open unnaturally can lead to a long-term problem, making it difficult for women to have children in the future. The possible complications during the procedure are life threatening to the women and are very real. The uterus can be perforated, causing hemorrhaging, amniotic fluid embolism, and life long mental anguish. Studies have shown that women who have abortions are more likely to develop cancer. Frequently, women who have had abortions become depressed afterward. They often regret their choice and grieve for the baby they killed. These appalling effects of partial-birth abortions are seldom addressed in our society. Women are led to believe that abortion is the only choice for them. They believe that once they have an abortion, their lives will be back to normal; everything will be fine. Most of the time women are not aware of the painful side effects partial-birth abortions can have on their bodies.

Besides being painful to the mother, partial-birth abortion is also extremely painful for the baby. The baby is turned into an unnatural breech position, which is painful for both the baby and the mother. Then the baby is stabbed in the back of the head with scissors. Babies have been seen flinching from the pain of the stab wound. Next, the baby’s brains are sucked right out of his head while he is still alive. Finally, after the shock of the excruciating pain, the baby is dead and pulled out of the mother, only to be discarded in a trashcan.

It is frightening to think about the path down which our country is heading. First, contraceptives were introduced and their use became widespread. Using contraceptives dehumanized people; they were seen as objects, which demoralized society. As a result of contraceptive use and its failure rate, abortions were made legal, because women needed to be free to do what they wished to their bodies. Sadly, the abortion rate steadily climbed. Next came partial-birth abortions, where the baby’s entire body is outside of the mother except his head. The next logical step is infanticide. If it is legal to stab a child in the head when his legs are kicking outside his mother, one minute before birth, could it one day be legal to stab a child one minute after birth? If the baby is handicapped or born with physical defects, surely the parents should be allowed to choose to kill their child before they bring him home from the hospital. But he’s not really alive only one week after birth anyway; he can’t even speak yet.

We must fight the atrocity of partial-birth abortion and prevent the legality of infanticide in our country. Christ said, “Thou shalt not kill.” There were no exceptions to this commandment. Christ loves all His children, whether in or out of their mother’s wombs, whether handicapped, deformed or perfect in the eyes of society. And He calls each and every one of us to stand up and fight against abortion, to save the innocent and defenseless of our society.

Published in VSHL Lifesaver, August 2002