Part 6: The Death of a Child
C. The Accidents of Size and Location of Life.
Consider this: D&E generally occurs by reaching into the cervix to dismember the fetus piece by piece. Generally, a leg or arm is pulled through the cervix, and the resistance of the cervix itself provides the abortionist with enough traction to pull the arm or leg from the body still within the womb. In this way, the abortion proceeds until all the body parts are removed. Death usually occurs because the fetus bleeds to death. The Nebraska law did not seek to restrict this procedure, and indeed, it argued that the D&E procedure was an acceptable safe alternative to D&X, or partial birth abortion. Yet, the D&E procedure is no less gruesome, and maybe more gruesome that the D&X procedure, which is largely intact, with the exception of the collapsed skull. (EN 22)
One of the more irrational aspects of Stenberg v. Carhart is the Court’s focus on the D&X procedure (partial birth), to the exclusion of the equally abhorrent procedure of D&E. The essential difference in the two procedures is that one is conducted with the fetus still in the womb, while the other procedure is conducted with the fetus intact lower body in the birth canal, but with its head in the womb. Yet, the Court spent considerable time and energy examining the State’s interest in limiting the D&X procedure because it was supposedly somehow more obnoxious and inhuman that the D&E procedure. The difference in the two situations is merely the location of the fetus, as if location had any logical relevance to the human and legal rights of the Child. Stated differently, the ban on partial birth abortion seems to attribute some arbitrary significance to whether the abortionist conducts his business by attacking the fetus within the womb or outside the womb. The morally correct decision of course would focus on the character of the fetus’s life as human and in the image of God, without regard to its location. (EN 23)
