Pennsylvania Won’t Ban Dismemberment Abortions Thanks to Gov. Tom Wolf’s Veto Threat

State   |   Maria Gallagher   |   Nov 18, 2016   |   3:43PM   |   Harrisburg, PA

It’s a practice so horrific, it is painful to even describe.

Dismemberment abortion is a ghastly method by which the life of an innocent preborn child is ended, violently, brutally—at a time when she may be developed enough to grasp with her hands, suck her thumb, and feel pain.

Statistics indicate 1,550 of our Commonwealth’s preborn children died from dismemberment abortion in 2014, the latest year for which figures are available from the state Health Department

Former abortionist George Flesh once wrote, “Tearing a developed fetus apart, limb by limb, is an act of depravity that society should not permit. We cannot afford such a devaluation of human life, nor the desensitization of medical personnel it requires” [https://articles.latimes.com/1991-09-12/local/me-2729_1_human-life].

In his dissent to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000 Stenberg v. Carhart decision,  Justice Anthony Kennedy  explained dismemberment abortion this way:

“The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn apart limb by limb. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off. The process of dismembering the fetus continues until it has been completely removed. A doctor may make 10 to 15 passes with the forceps to evacuate the fetus in its entirety, though sometimes removal is completed with fewer passes. Once the fetus has been evacuated, the placenta and any remaining fetal material are suctioned or scraped out of the uterus. The doctor examines the different parts to ensure the entire fetal body has been removed.” [Underlining added.]

Over the past year, so many women have come to me, asking when we will see an end to the heinous practice of dismemberment abortions in Pennsylvania. Certainly, there is widespread support for such a ban. Polling last year indicated an overwhelming majority of Pennsylvanians approved of a ban, with the level of support actually higher among female respondents.

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In response to the growing concerns about dismemberment abortions, a female lawmaker in the Keystone State, Rep. Kathy Rapp, introduced House Bill 1948, which would make it illegal to cause “the death of an unborn child by means of dismembering the unborn child and extracting the unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors, or similar instruments.”

Under the bill, Pennsylvania’s late-term abortion ban, which was enacted back in 1989, also would be updated to reflect the miraculous technology which allows premature babies to be saved at ever-earlier stages of development. Abortions are currently banned in Pennsylvania after 24 weeks’ gestations except to save the life of the mother or to prevent the “substantial and irreversible impairment of a (mother’s) major bodily function.”  HB 1948 would change the threshold to 20 weeks.

The House approved  HB 1948  in June by a bipartisan, two-to-one margin. A number of women legislators took the lead in condemning the heartless practice of dismembering babies.  In the state Senate, the Judiciary Committee gave its stamp of approval to the legislation a few weeks later.

But the bill faced a major impediment: Governor Tom Wolf, who once volunteered as an abortion facility escort for Planned Parenthood, threatened to veto the measure.

The Senate finished its session this week without a final floor vote on the dismemberment ban. So for now, the Abortion Industry is expressing a sigh of relief—thanks to their ally in the Governor’s Office.

But, as my father used to say, justice delayed is not justice denied.

Too many Pennsylvanians care about this issue to allow it to go away.

The fight for the lives of these children—and for the mothers left to grieve their loss—continues. As the legendary civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

And violently ripping a baby leg by leg from a mother’s womb is the height of injustice.

ACTION: Contact the governor here.

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