Planned Parenthood Defends Doing Dismemberment Abortions as One of the “Safest” Abortion Procedures

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Sep 26, 2017   |   10:17AM   |   Austin, TXC

Planned Parenthood is not happy with any restriction whatsoever involving the killing of unborn babies.

The top abortion chain in the nation, along with several other pro-abortion groups, are challenging a 2017 Texas law that prohibits brutal dismemberment abortions. In these gruesome second-trimester abortions, the unborn baby is ripped apart in the womb and pulled out in pieces while his or her heart is still beating.

A judge temporarily blocked the law from going into effect while the court case proceeds.

The abortion industry claims the law imposes an undue burden on women’s access to abortion by prohibiting the “safest,” most common second-trimester abortion method, D&E. Lawyers for the state contend that dismemberment abortions are inhumane toward the unborn, and it is illegal to kill an animal in the same way. They argue that abortion clinics could use alternate methods that do not involve tearing apart a living unborn baby, limb by limb.

Now, the state is requesting information to verify if the abortion industry’s claims about the “safety” of dismemberment abortions are true, at least for the mother. No abortion method is safe for the unborn baby.

The Federalist reports more about the case:

Texas has defended the ban’s constitutionality by stressing that abortion providers may legally perform D&E abortions by causing fetal demise prior to dismemberment, with, for instance, the poison digoxin or by severing the umbilical cord. But the plaintiffs obtained a preliminary injunction by making “sweeping allegations that causing fetal demise prior to dismemberment is not feasible because some doctors do not currently do it, it is unsafe, and it is ineffective.”

Late last week, though, [state Attorney General Ken] Paxton’s office won an important victory in its efforts to counter these claims: After six weeks of refusing to comply with Texas’s discovery requests, the district court ordered the abortion providers to turn over detailed information concerning the second-trimester abortions performed at their Texas clinics.

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According to the order, Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities must provide data about the second-trimester abortions that they have performed since 2001, including the abortionist, the type of procedure performed, complications, the use of digoxin, and the timing of the unborn baby’s death (before or after dismemberment).

Here’s more from the report:

While it is too early to know whether these documents will negate the plaintiffs’ assertion that methods of causing fetal demise prior to dismemberment are ineffective and unsafe (to the woman), there is some evidence that will be the case. Specifically, in its Motion to Compel, Texas noted that in seeking a preliminary injunction, the plaintiffs alleged digoxin fails to cause fetal demise 5 to 10 percent of the time, but that in discovery two of the plaintiff physicians who currently use digoxin estimate only a 1 to 2 percent failure rate.

Texas leaders have strong hopes that the law will be upheld as constitutional. According to Texas Right to Life, Senate Bill 8 was written with the partial-birth abortion ban, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2007, in mind.

“Just like partial-birth abortions, dismemberment abortions are inhumane and gruesome acts of violence against the preborn child,” the pro-life group said in a statement.

Attorney General Paxton previously said the law protects the sanctity and dignity of human life. His lawyers argued in August that the law was written specifically to stop the brutal and gruesome dismemberment of living unborn babies in Texas.

“Prohibiting this inhumane procedure does not impose any significant health risks or burdens on women,” Paxton said.

Texas leaders are ready to defend the law – and unborn babies’ lives – all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. Many expected that pro-abortion groups would challenge the law when it passed.

The law made Texas the eighth state to protect developing preborn children from such a heinous act. Earlier this year, Arkansas enacted the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act joining Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

The dismemberment abortion ban embodies model legislation from the National Right to Life Committee that would prohibit “dismemberment abortion,” using forceps, clamps, scissors or similar instruments on a living unborn baby to remove him or her from the womb in pieces. Such instruments typically are used in dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedures.