NOW, I have seen everything: Forced Abortions Now Legal In the U.S.

"The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act makes the violation of a woman's right to receive reproductive health care a federal crime. It is hard to imagine a worse violation of reproductive rights than forced abortion. Yet the Eleventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals apparently disagrees.

"On 23 January 2004, in Jane Roe II vs. Aware Women Center for Choice, Inc., the Eleventh Circuit Court ruled that an expectant mother can be aborted by force if the abortionist argues that it is necessary to 'protect the health of the mother.'

"The story begins on 29 March 1997, when a young, pregnant mother entered the Aware Women Center for Choice clinic in Florida. She was there for an abortion. [The abortionist Egherman] began by attempting to dilate her cervix with a 12 millimeter dilator.

"'My God, you're hurting me' the woman began to scream. 'You're killing me, I'll never be able to have babies... Stop!' She'd had a change of heart. She did not want an abortion. She wanted to keep her baby. And she wanted to leave. Immediately. 'Stop. Let me out of here,' she cried.

"Instead of respecting the woman's wishes and stopping the procedure, Egherman called for assistance. Clinic workers held the woman down as Egherman, ignoring the woman's screams, continued to dilate her cervix. Then he entered the victim with a pair of forceps--"the bear" Ehgerman called them--and began probing and pulling. He mistakenly pulled out part of the woman's intestines. For the woman, said her attorney, Chris Sapp, it was like being drawn and quartered.

"Realizing what he had done, Egherman heavily sedated the woman. Then he called for an ambulance. He instructed the ambulance to come slowly, without lights or sirens, in order to give him "time to pack the woman with gauze."

"Egherman was also worried: 'Saturday's our big day, and I didn't want to generate...any more panic than was already present at the time. She was loud...she was shrill, and there were a lot of patients who were hearing what was going on...The other patients must have been terrified...'

"At the hospital, the woman was operated on and the damage to her internal organs repaired. Her baby was found to be dead, and was removed."

THIS WOMAN LOST HER CASE. "According to [her attorney], 'This ruling does establish a precedent for forced abortion.' An expectant mother receiving a routine gynecological exam, for example, could be held down and forcibly aborted. The abortionist would merely have to argue that the abortion was necessary to protect the mother's health or life, and this would not be a violation of the FACE Act."

And hers isn't the only such story in this article.