Category: Late Term Abortions

Dr Donna PURCELL, President, Cherish Life, testified at a hearing in Brisbane:

“In Victoria in 2011, a healthy, viable baby over 37 weeks gestation to a healthy mother was aborted for psychosocial reasons. In the same year, 10 healthy babies to healthy mothers were aborted between 28 and 31 weeks gestation. These children would have no doubt survived with proper care. In recent years in Victoria, about 50 per cent of the late-term abortions have been performed for psychosocial reasons, having nothing to do with the health of the woman or the child. …

In recent years in Victoria, two to three late-term abortions of healthy babies to healthy mothers occur every week for psychosocial reasons.”

PUBLIC HEARING—INQUIRY INTO THE TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY BILL 2018, HEALTH, COMMUNITIES, DISABILITY SERVICES AND DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION COMMITTE, TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS, 12 SEPTEMBER 2018, Brisbane p. 14

Dr Donna Purchell revealed the following in a court hearing:

“In Victoria in 2011, a healthy, viable baby over 37 weeks gestation to a healthy mother was aborted for psychosocial reasons. In the same year, 10 healthy babies to healthy mothers were aborted between 28 and 31 weeks gestation. These children would have no doubt survived with proper care. In recent years in Victoria, about 50 per cent of the late-term abortions have been performed for psychosocial reasons, having nothing to do with the health of the woman or the child. …

In recent years in Victoria, two to three late-term abortions of healthy babies to healthy mothers occur every week for psychosocial reasons.”

PUBLIC HEARING—INQUIRY INTO THE TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY BILL 2018, HEALTH, COMMUNITIES, DISABILITY SERVICES AND DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION COMMITTEE, TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS, 12 SEPTEMBER 2018, Brisbane, p 9

Can be found here. 

Judith Arcana worked with JANE, a group of  women who did illegal abortions before Roe V. Wade. None of these women abortionists had medical degrees. JANE started out as a referral service, sending women to an illegal abortionist. When they found out that the abortionist they sent women to was not a doctor, they decided to do the abortions themselves. They were self-taught.

Judith Arcana says:

“Ultimately, we learned to do abortions in all three trimesters. Although we did only a handful in the third, as you may imagine, there were many in the second, no doubt because illegality forced women and girls to take so much time searching for abortionists and saving up money.”

Judith Arcana ““Feminist politics and abortion in the US,”  Psychology and Reproductive Choice Visited 9/2/2017

Dr. David Grundmann, the medical director for Planned Parenthood of Australia, wrote a paper on partial birth abortions where he stated the reasons why he performed them. The paper was titled “Abortion After Twenty Weeks in Clinical Practice: Practical, Ethical and Legal Issues.” From National Right to Life:

Dr. Grundmann wrote that in Australia, late-second-trimester abortion is available “in many major hospitals, in most capital cities and large provincial centres” in cases of “lethal fetal abnormalities” or “gross fetal abnormalities,” or “risk to maternal life,” including “psychotic/suicidal behavior.” However, Dr. Grundmann said, his Planned Parenthood clinic also offers the procedure after 20 weeks for women who fall into five additional “categories”: (1) “minor or doubtful fetal abnormalities,” (2) “extreme maternal immaturity i.e. girls in the 11 to 14 year age group,” (3) women “who do not know they are pregnant,” for example because of amenorrhea [irregular menstruation] “in women who are very active such as athletes or those under extreme forms of stress i.e. exam stress, relationship breakup…,” (4) “intellectually impaired women, who are unaware of basic biology…,” (5) “major life crises or major changes in socio-economic circumstances. The most common example of this is a planned or wanted pregnancy followed by the sudden death or desertion of the partner who is in all probability the bread winner.”

“For what reasons are partial-birth abortions usually performed?” National Right to Life” Here Visited 12/3/2017

Any of those reasons could be given for aborting a baby like the one above.

National Right to Life wrote about abortion records that were made available to Congress to document the reasons for late-term abortions during the partial-birth abortion trials.

In June, 1995, Dr. McMahon submitted to Congress a detailed breakdown of a “series” of over 2,000 of these abortions that he had performed. He classified only 9% (175 cases) as involving “maternal [health] indications,” of which the most common was “depression.”

The records were examined closely by Dr. Pamela E. Smith:

Dr. Pamela E. Smith, director of Medical Education, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Chicago, gave the Senate Judiciary Committee her analysis of Dr. McMahon’s 175 “maternal indication” cases. Of this sample, 39 cases (22%) were for maternal “depression,” while another 16% were “for conditions consistent with the birth of a normal child (e.g., sickle cell trait, prolapsed uterus, small pelvis),” Dr. Smith noted. She added that in one-third of the cases, the conditions listed as “maternal indications” by Dr. McMahon really indicated that the procedure itself would be seriously risky to the mother.

Of Dr. McMahon’s series, another 1,183 cases (about 56%) were for “fetal flaws,” but these included a great many non-lethal disorders, such as cleft palate and Down Syndrome. In an op ed piece written for the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Katherine Dowling, a family physician at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, examined Dr. McMahon’s report on this “fetal flaws” group. She wrote:

Twenty-four were done for cystic hydroma (a benign lymphatic mass, usually treatable in a child of normal intelligence). Nine were done for cleft lip-palate syndrome (a friend of mine, mother of five, and a colleague who is a pulmonary specialist were born with this problem). Other reasons included cystic fibrosis (my daughter went through high school with a classmate with cystic fibrosis) and duodenal atresia (surgically correctable, but many children with this problem are moderately mentally retarded). Guess they can’t enjoy life, can they?

In fact, most of the partial-birth abortions in that [McMahon] survey were done for problems that were either surgically correctable or would result in some degree of neurologic or mental impairment, but would not harm the mother. Or they were done for reasons that were pretty skimpy: depression, chicken pox, diabetes, vomiting. [“What Constitutes A Quality Life?,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 28, 1996]

Over one-third of McMahon’s 2,000-abortion “series” involved neither fetal nor maternal health problems, however trivial.

“For what reasons are partial-birth abortions usually performed?” National Right to Life” Here.

During the partial-birth abortion debate, pro-choicers made the claim that these late-term abortions were done only when the mother or the baby had serious medical problems. In fact, this wasn’t true. Many were elective. What was true of partial-birth abortions is also true of late-term abortions today. National Right to Life writes about a lawsuit against Dr. Martin Haskell, who pioneered the partial-birth abortion method:

“In a lawsuit in 1995, Dr. Haskell testified that women come to him for partial-birth abortions with “a variety of conditions. Some medical, some not so medical.” Among the “medical” examples he cited was “agoraphobia” (fear of open places).”

“For what reasons are partial-birth abortions usually performed?” National Right to Life” here.