D.C. Delegate: Regulate Vets Not Abortion Clinics, “What Happens in Abortions Isn’t Surgical”

National   |   Andrew Bair   |   Jan 15, 2015   |   5:28PM   |   Washington, DC

In a discussion on  PBS’s  “To the Contrary” on the subject of abortion center regulations, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton,  the non-voting person who speaks for the District of Columbia in the House of Representatives,  willfully ignored the  tragic reality of abortion.

After one commenter noted that veterinary clinics are held to higher health standards than abortion centers, Holmes Norton defended the disparity saying, “What happens in abortion clinics is usually not surgical. You go to a vet, they have to be equipped to do anything that the pet requires.”

eleanorholmesnorton3“In other words, they have to be prepared to cut him open. They don’t just bring him there to do a simple procedure, one-time, very narrow procedure. So to compare what a full surgical clinic where full surgery is necessary because of the nature of the procedures to an abortion clinic, which normally is not surgical and is a very simple procedure, is to compare not just apples to oranges,” she continued.

In fact, most abortions are surgical. According to the Guttmacher Institute’s latest figures, just 23% of abortions were chemical abortions.

In the District of Columbia, abortion is legal on demand for any reason, through all nine months of pregnancy.   Delegate Holmes Norton should be aware that surgical abortions are most definitely practiced in the District.

Delegate Holmes Norton was present at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in 2012 when expert testimony was heard on the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist, testified at that hearing and described in detail a common form of dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion. D&E abortions are practiced at several local abortion centers.

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Delegate Norton heard in shocking detail the process by which an abortionist uses forceps with sharp metal jaws to grasp, twist and tear away the limbs of the unborn baby. This is not a “simple procedure,” as Norton describes, but a brutal act of violence that results in the death of an unborn baby.

“It is very telling that a proponent of abortion on demand for any reason has to ignore the gruesome reality,” said Luis Zaffirini, president of Beltway Right to Life.