FRANKFORT, Kentucky, March 15, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Kentucky state House voted 71-11 Monday to ban dismemberment abortions.
Euphemistically called a “Dilation and Evacuation (D&E)” by the abortion movement, this method of abortion is commonly used on babies in the second trimester of pregnancy.
The Dismemberment Abortion Ban would prohibit this method of ending a pre-born child’s life. The bill notes that during such an abortion, the doctor “dismembers the living unborn child and extracts portions, pieces, or limbs of the unborn child from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors, or a similar instrument that…slices, crushes, or grasps…any portion, piece, or limb of the unborn child’s body.”
Before explaining the procedure under consideration, bill sponsor Rep. Addia Wuchner (R) allowed time for parents to take their children out of the legislative chamber, because she admitted the abortion descriptions would be “brutal.”
Dr. Lynda Sanders of Lexington gave testimony during debate over the bill. The Courier reported that Sanders’ “voice wavered as she asked the committee why Kentucky wasn’t providing unborn children some degree of dignity in how their lives end.”
“These lives are small and tiny but they are still human,” Wuchner added.
“Before the first trimester ends, the unborn child has a beating heart, brain waves, and every organ system in place,” said National Right to Life lawyer Mary Spaulding Balch. “Dismemberment abortion then kills a baby by tearing her apart limb from limb.”
About 10 percent of abortions across the U.S. are committed against babies in their second trimester of gestation. According to state data, 537 of Kentucky’s 3,312 abortions in 2016 were dismemberment abortions.
If the bill becomes a law, abortionists could face felony charges and up to five years in prison for violating it. Mothers would face no penalty.
‘Bring it. Let’s have that trial’
The Dismemberment Abortion Ban only regulates a particular abortion technique. It doesn’t restrict abortion based on the baby’s age.
Opponents of the bill say it will not withstand court challenge, and will cost the state of Kentucky dearly in defending it. In response to those objections, Rep. Robert Benvenuti III (R) said, “To that, I say bring it. Let's have that trial.”
Rep. Chris Fugate (R) asked how anyone could “even think about suing the state or anybody else for taking up for life.”
‘A little face may come out and stare back at you’ during the abortion: doctor
This is how former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino has described D&E abortions:
“Picture yourself reaching in with the clamp and grasping anything you can… Squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard – really hard. You feel something let go, and out pops a fully formed leg, about 4 to 5 inches long.”
Dr. Levatino continues:
“Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the (clamp) and pull really hard once again, and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp, and tear out the spine, intestines, heart, and lungs.”
But the abortion is not over:
The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby that age is about the size of a plum and is now free-floating inside the uterine cavity. You can be pretty sure you have hold of it if the clamp is spread about as far as your fingers will allow. You will know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see a pure white gelatinous material issue from the cervix. That was the baby’s brains.
You can then extract the skull pieces. If you have a really bad day like I often did, a little face may come out and stare back at you.
“The alternative method to dismemberment abortion (D&E) is Digoxin poisoning, killing the baby in the womb, and then inducing labor to deliver a dead baby,” said Kay Culp, Executive Director of Kansans for Life.
Culp told LifeSiteNews that abortionists have ulterior motives to fight dismemberment bans.
“Dismemberment abortion facilitates fetal harvesting,” she said. “Clinicians experimenting on aborted baby parts don’t want their research tainted by drugs, and, they want fresh organs – packed for shipping within minutes of death.”
The Florida House passed a similar bill March 1, and South Carolina’s ban is soon going before the state Senate.
Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia have passed dismemberment abortion bans. All but Mississippi’s and West Virginia’s laws are being challenged in the courts.
In Kentucky, pro-life measures have easily passed since state elections put Republicans in control of the legislature and Matt Bevin became governor.