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Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Challenge: Continuing Coverage and Highlights

Trials in the 3 lawsuits against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act began Monday, March 29th in three separate U.S. District Courts. The primary plaintiff in the Southern District of New York is the National Abortion Federation (NAF); the plaintiffs in the District of Nebraska are Dr. Leroy Carhart and several other abortion doctors (Abortion Doctors), and the primary plaintiff in the Northern District of California is Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). The Attorney General of the United States is the defendant in each case.

After opening statements from each side, plaintiffs began presenting their evidence. Excerpts from the unofficial transcripts of testimony from the first 3 days of trial appear below.

Transcripts of the proceedings were provided by Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq., Director of Planning and Information Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

NEW YORK, April 5, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A judge hearing testimony in the partial-birth abortion ban challenge has continued to ask hard questions of abortionists on the stand. U.S. District Judge Richard C. Casey, asked abortionist Carolyn Westhoff, "Does the baby ever make any noise or cry?" "It does not withdraw or move," Dr. Westhoff, who said she commits at least 500 abortions per year, claimed. "Do the hands ever move?" Judge Casey asked. "The fetus is limp," she replied.

Westhoff said most women choose late-term abortions because of fetal malformations. Judge Casey, who is blind, asked Westhoff, "A condition that causes blindness, can that be detected?" Judge Casey said he was curious if "a mother can detect in advance that a baby will be born blind." "Not that I'm aware of," Westhoff replied.

Westhoff also claimed that abortion was safer than childbirth. "Would you recommend abortion rather than childbirth?" Judge Casey asked. "If a woman wants to have a baby, she should continue and take the risk," Westhoff answered.

Partial-birth abortions involve the partial delivery of a baby, such that its limbs are removed before the head is crushed to facilitate delivery. When Westhoff admitted that she usually crushed the child's head in order to extract it from the womb, Judge Casey asked, "Do you tell the women that, do you use the words collapse or crush?" "No I do not," she replied. "I didn't think so," Casey stated.

After Westhoff said that some women like to hold the dead baby to facilitate grieving, Judge Casey asked "Did you tell them you were sucking the brains out of the same baby they desired to hold?" "They know the head's empty," Westhoff replied. "I don't tell them I'm sucking the brain out." When she added that she doesn't "think that helps the grieving process," Casey retorted, "I didn't ask that."

Read the complete transcripts at: http://www.cogforlife.org/abortiontranscript1.htm

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