Partial Birth Abortion Ban

I spent the day today in a New York City court attending the closing arguments of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban. As a post-abortive woman, it certainly was interesting to hear the argument by the Plaintiffs. I thought I would share just a little with you.

Some of what was presented and how I felt:

They justify the procedure because they say it is the safest way to end a 2nd trimester abortion. Which of course, to me, is crazy since the baby is almost born. It also is an admission (although they would not admit it) that other methods of abortion are not safe.

They completely make it sound like the woman is fully informed and decides what kind of an abortion she wants with her doctor. Yet no one I know had that experience.

The judge (Casey) kept asking about informed consent and if the women were told beforehand in language they could understand what exactly was going to happen during the procedure including a study that has been done. The plaintiff stated he felt that there was no obligation to disclose the study to the women and that doctors decide depending on their patients if they should disclose everything.

The judge returned often to the point that there is a shield around these abortions and so there is no true way to find out the impact they have since no one will provide records even if the patient's identity is protected.

The health of the woman was the plaintiff's main focus, but no mention was given of the health of the mother after the abortion in this or any other procedure...obviously because of the continued denial of post-abortion stress.

The plaintiff stated that not one iota of evidence is around to show that "profit" by the doctors factors into the decision to have this kind of abortion.

They also cited that it is the safest method for women with placenta previa, infections and scarring from c section. I found this interesting since the things they mentioned are often problems women experience after having had an abortion.

Perhaps the most compelling thing for me was that this procedure is better than induced labor of a dead fetus because
1. the women would labor without the joy of birth
2. they would be on the labor floor in the hospital
The lawyer stated he would not "consign anyone to that".

As someone who experienced exactly that...induced labor and being on the labor floor, I fail to see how it justfies PBA abortion. Of course, the argument would be the mental health of the mother and yet he then proceeded to state that PBA is also better because it allows for the "increasing desire to mourn and hold the fetus" and since the fetus looks "intact" if you put a cap on, the mother can then hold her "fetus" as part of the grieving process.

There was a few times I wanted to jump up and testify...it was hard to be silent. I pray more and more of us do not stay silent. We truly are the only ones to expose the truth of abortion.