What health risks to a mother justify a partial birth abortion (since this is the argument for no ban on it)?

Answer 1

* "There are absolutely no obstetrical situations...which require a partially delivered human fetus to be destroyed to preserve the life or health of the mother."

Testimony of Pamela Smith, MD in the U.S. Senate Hearing Report 104-260 (testimony of November 17, 1995), p. 82

* Abortionist Warren Hern (the leading "authority" on late-term abortion in the United States) stated that the procedure is never necessary to preserve a woman's health.

Warren Hern in American Medical News, November 20, 1995, p. 3

* To date, 480 American doctors have signed a statement saying that NO abortion is ever necessary to save a woman's life:

http://www.all.org/article.php?id=10682

* Most partial-birth abortions are committed on viable babies. Common sense alone would seem to dictate that a c-section or labor induction would be less traumatic to a woman's health than forcing dilating her cervix, turning her baby to breech position, and introducing grasping and sharp instruments into her body and her child's body .

Answer 2

One can argue that every birth risks the life of the mother. You really can't say that a birth was life risking, however, until the birth has actually happened. I've seen many a friend have quite a normal pregnancy up until the end, and then in the delivery room all hell breaks loose. Women hemmorhage and bleed out. Hearts stop. Emergency C-Sections ensue, and sometimes mother and baby don't make it. But who would have been able to predict this up front in, say, the 4th or 5th month of pregnancy? The most normal of pregnancies can turn bad in the end.

Also, a woman risks diabetes, bone deformation, pelvic floor collapse, kidney damage, severe rectal tearing, nerve damage, urinary incontinence, and much more. If a woman has had scarlet fever or rheumatic fever as a child (as I have) the birth process can put such an extreme pressure on her heart that it can kill her (heart failure?). These are high risk births. Some women don't ever realize they're in high risk groups.

Pregnancy and childbirth take over a woman's entire biology and there are so many things that can happen. Biology has geared it so that the baby is like a parasite. It gets nutrients before the mother does and if they're in short supply, like calcium, it will leach it from the mother's body.

My anatomy professor said that we (as pre med students) should really visualize the growing fetus as a parasite of sorts. It takes and takes from it's "host" and even puts the "host's" life in jeopardy in order to survive.

Want to prevent partial birth abortions? Don't argue health reasons. They're there no matter what you think and they're valid. Instead:

1. make information about birth control widely available
2. provide birth control to everyone without parental notification
3. encourage abstinence to the hilt! there are so many reasons to wait. stigma about this needs to be removed among the young.
4. penalize young boys and their families financially and criminally if a minor girl becomes pregnant. yes, put the onus on the sperm provider.
5. and if 1-3 fail, provide RU486 and early abortions without parental notificaions so that partial birth abortions don't need to be performed.

Answer 3

since My opinion is that partial birth abortions is murder, the only thing I think would possible justify it is if their is a risk death to the mother.