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Judge asks Abortionist if Dismembering a Live Baby During Partial-Birth Abortion Causes it Pain

NEW YORK, April 1, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Judge Richard C. Casey did not let partial-birth abortionist Dr. Timothy Johnson off easy. In court testimony Wednesday challenging the constitutionality of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, Judge Casey grilled Johnson about the grisly procedure. Associated Press reported the dialogue between the judge and the abortionist.

Partial-Birth Abortions often necessitate dismemberment of the live baby while the head remains entrenched in the womb. Judge Casey asked Johnson "Does the fetus feel pain?" Johnson replied that he was not sure, that he was not familiar with any research that suggested they do.

A doctor who testified a day earlier said that a baby does not necessarily die after its limbs are torn off. Casey pressed Johnson about whether he ever thought about the pain inflicted on the child during the procedure: "Simple question, doctor," Casey said. "Does it cross your mind?" Johnson replied in the negative. "Never crossed your mind?" the judge repeated. "No," Johnson replied.

The partial-birth abortion ban is being challenged simultaneously in three lawsuits - in New York, Lincoln, and San Francisco -- brought by seven Planned Parenthood abortionists.

Casey also wanted to know if women were informed that their child would be dismembered before dying. "So you tell her the arms and legs are pulled off?" he asked. "I mean, that's what I want to know. Do you tell her?" "We tell her the baby, the fetus, is dismembered as part of the procedure, yes," Johnson replied.

Casey also wanted to know if women were informed that the abortion involved "sucking the brain out of the skull." "I don't think we would use those terms," Johnson replied. "I think we would probably use a term like decompression of the skull or reducing the contents of the skull."

Casey said, "Make it nice and palatable so that they wouldn't understand what it's all about?" Johnson said that he would not want to be insensitive, "We try to do it in a way that's not offensive or gruesome or overly graphic for patients."

U.S. Department of Justice Attorney Sean Lane was in court to defend the ban. He told Judge Casey that the U.S. Congress had spent eight years studying the procedure before passing the ban, which was passed in both Houses by wide margins.

"There are no known maternal or fetal health condition for which partial birth abortion is necessary for the health of the woman ... no proven safety advantages," Lane told the court. He said the ban was in place to prevent an abortion that "blurs the line between live birth and abortion," as well as being "an inhumane procedure that causes pain to the fetus."

Read local coverage at: http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/National/AP.V5842.AP-Abort...

Read the related LifeSiteNews.com report about pediatric anesthesiologist Jean Wright, M.D., who wrote a paper explaining the physiology of fetal pain: "Newborns not only feel pain," she wrote, "they react to pain with 3-5 times the response of adults," at: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jun/020620.html

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