ACLJ: Abortion Testimony Reveals Barbaric Details about Partial-Birth Abortion.

Business Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2004

The American Center for Law and Justice, which specializes in constitutional law and pro-life litigation, said today the graphic and gruesome testimony in the federal court trials involving the challenge of a national ban on partial-birth abortion is revealing the truth about the painful and barbaric death of unborn children who are the victims of this procedure - which according to testimony - includes dismemberment and decapitation of unborn children moments before live birth.

"The testimony of these abortion providers unlocks the door to a secret world of torturous death that includes dismemberment and decapitation of unborn children whose lives are taken by partial-birth abortion," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ, who is supporting the Department of Justice in its defense of the ban and attending the trial in New York City. "The truth about this barbaric procedure is finally coming to light - a horrific and repulsive procedure that clearly underscores the need for this ban on partial-birth abortion. The testimony of the abortion providers is not only revealing gruesome details about a procedure that amounts to infanticide, but is setting the stage for the Department of Justice to prove that this procedure is never medically necessary."

In the San Francisco trial, where Planned Parenthood is challenging the national ban, a physician - who requested that his identity be withheld - testified that often he must separate the skull of the unborn child from its body during the abortion in order to remove the child from the woman's body. The physician, who testified under the pseudonym of Dr. Doe, told U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton that the child's head is the most difficult portion of the body to remove. The physician, who specializes in maternal-fetal medicine, testified that often he delivers all of the child's body with the exception of the head, which remains inside the woman, and then uses scissors to cut the neck and separate the child's head from the body. He testified that he would then use forceps to crush the head before removing it from the woman's body.

Question: How would you separate the calvarium (skull) from the fetus?

Dr. Doe: "Under direct visualization ... I would use scissors to cut the neck and separate - I am not in the uterus, I am in the vagina - separating the fetal calvarium from the fetal body."

In testimony this week at the trial in New York City, where the ACLU and the National Abortion Federation is challenging the ban, an abortion provider testified that the unborn child is often dismembered during the procedure and that the unborn child does not immediately die after limbs are pulled off and remains alive until the head is crushed.

The ACLJ, which is posting details of the testimony online at www.aclj.org, will be filing amicus briefs representing members of Congress who sponsored the partial-birth abortion ban legislation that was approved by Congress last fall with wide bi-partisan support.

The three trials are taking place in California, Nebraska, and New York. The American Center for Law and Justice specializes in constitutional law and is based in Washington, D.C.