what is a "partial-birth abortion"?

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geo w urged us to stop them in his state of the union address... what was he on about?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 16:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Stabbing a baby on its way out?

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 16:06 (twenty-three years ago)

JOKE-STEALER.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 16:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Quickest death of a thread EVER. And get ready for the google love/hate.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 16:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I have some gruesome comments to add here but I'm too twee.

(and my brain is addled after that Transport Police thing last night with the guy that got hit by the train, eeeeeeurgh)

― Graham (graham), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 16:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Fritz it's a slightly later-term abortion where more of the work takes place on the other side of the birth canal. I'd provide specifics but I'm sure you can google for them.

Politically speaking it is business as usual, i.e. attack the least discrete forms of abortion as a road into attacking the whole. Note that that line provoked the only evidence of a two-party political system in the entire address, with instant ovation on the right and seated scowls on the left. Everyone cheered together through the whole Mussolini-on-the-balcony bit, though, and our entire government gave a standing ovation to a joke about killing people!

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 17:43 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah that was weird... you mean the "some terrorists have met a different fate... let's just say their not a threat to america and it's allies anymore" bit?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 17:52 (twenty-three years ago)

I only read the transcript and when I came to that line I just shuddered "oh here's where he smirked and everyone cheered and hooted." Gah.

― g.cannon (gcannon), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 18:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, he totally smirked in that cowboy-stylee, and our government gave a standing ovation to death. Not a solemn "we did what we had to do" but a great big Hollywood "ooh yeah we killed 'em."

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 18:01 (twenty-three years ago)

The SOTU speech was far too frustrating - my S/O finally left the room to watch it on a different TV because I was annoying him by yelling back at Bushie-baby andnpointing out the flaws in his so-called logic. Kinda sad, in retrospect.

About partial-birth abortion - I'd read, somewhere, that most physicians considered them to be a significant danger to the woman and would prefer to perform them only when the woman's life is in danger. (Though, admittedly, this might be a wrong memory of whatever it was hat I read.) Basically, I think that Bush and his cohorts are working to dismantle abortion rights, one step at a time (like additional penalties when a criminal kills a pregnant woman - charge him [or her] with an additional count of murder - which then gives precedence in the laws for a fetus having rights, which then leads to destruction of abortion rights in all cases, as a fetus is considered to be a human and therefore protected by law) and I fear that they might well succeed if he is able to place more federal judges as well as conservative judges on the Supreme Court.

But I am not going to rant - I promised myself to be good today - gotta keep that blood-pressure down - so does anyone want to comment on the clothing of the spectators? Whether or not the audiences' palms iteched from all of the pseudo-clapping? How many calories were burnt with all of the standing and sitting and clapping and such? And just who did have the most half-hearted clapping style?

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 19:30 (twenty-three years ago)

They like to present the least appealing kind of abortions as if they are not untypical, whereas they are, I believe, extremely rare. It is a thin end of the wedge deal, without doubt.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 19:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Are these done after the first trimester?

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 19:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, Sarah - usually in the third trimester. I believe that labor is induced - well - go google it - I don't want to get the facts incorrect. It does sound like a horrible procedure, but I still view as being a medical decision and not a moral one.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 19:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Just to give you the gorey details, its a very late term abortion (surely after the first trimester) that involves poking a hole in the skull of the baby while it is in the uterus and sucking out the brains, causing the skull to collapse. The baby is then removed from the uterous. Only a tiny, tiny percentage of abortions use this procedure, and almost always in cases where the mother's life is in danger. Partial birth abortions came up during the Clinton era, I forget the details though.

― fletrejet, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 19:45 (twenty-three years ago)

The phrase was actually coined by opponents of abortion to make it sound as gruesome as possible. Somehow the meme machine kicked in and it became the way these are described now.

The campaign to do away with them is obviously a thinly veiled first step, but it sure is a good way for Shrub to maintain hs right wing base without alienating everyone else too badly.

― Dave Beckhouse (Dave Beckhouse), Thursday, 30 January 2003 02:40 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

Looks like W is about to make good on his promise...

Supreme Court Will Hear "Partial Birth" Abortion Case
Supreme Court Reopens Abortion Issue on Alito's First Day

― Hatch (Hatch), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 17:29 (twenty years ago)

start a brazilian
religion that believes in abortion

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 17:32 (twenty years ago)

It's a "right" term for something that is almost never done.

start a brazilian
religion that believes in abortion

ken c, blazing bold new trails in the field of haiku

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 03:55 (twenty years ago)

I was partially birth-aborted, but I thank Jesus every day that mommy changed her mind before she was done.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 04:19 (twenty years ago)

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