Currently, there is no statistical information on why “dilation and extraction abortions” are performed. The term was first coined in 1995 by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) to describe a recently introduced medical procedure to remove fetuses from the womb. Also known as “dilation and extraction” or D&X and “intact D&E,” it involves removing the intact fetus by dilating a pregnant woman`s cervix and then pulling the entire body through the birth canal. Doctors are especially concerned about cases of miscarriage during the second trimester, where an intact D&X must be performed to help the patient. Drey described a woman she treated who lost her pregnancy as a result of a miscarriage that was bleeding profusely. “The quickest way to stop the bleeding was to perform the forbidden procedure.” Unable to completely ban abortion, opponents of abortion are trying to ban it method by method. Since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, state and federal policymakers pursued many strategies to restrict access. One of these strategies focused on eliminating access to abortion after the first trimester by banning one method at a time.
Doctors usually refer to the partial-birth abortion procedure as intact dilation and extraction. The alternative procedure, which is not prohibited, involves dismembering and extracting the fetus into the womb. Partial birth abortion or intact dilation and evacuation are permitted if the fetus is dead. Killing the fetus by injection and inducing labor is not often used in the United States and is considered less safe. D&E is a safe and common method of second-trimester abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the terms “partial-birth abortion” and “intact dilation and extraction” are fundamentally synonymous. [22] However, there are cases where these overlapping terms do not match. For example, the intact D&E procedure can be used to remove a deceased fetus (for example, due to miscarriage or feticide) that is so developed that dilation of the cervix is necessary for its extraction. [23] The removal of a dead fetus does not meet the federal definition of “partial birth abortion,” which states that a partial live birth must precede “an open act, other than the interruption of birth, that kills the partially delivered live fetus.” [24] Both p.
1692 and H.R. 3660 imposed a fine and/or imprisonment of up to two years on any physician who knowingly performed a partial abortion. Partial-birth abortion has been defined as an abortion in which a person “intentionally and intentionally. gives birth vaginally to part of a live fetus intact until the fetus is partially outside the mother`s body to perform an open act that the person knows will kill the fetus” and actually performs the open act that kills the fetus.34 In addition to criminal sanctions, at pp. 1692 and H.R. 3660 a private right of action for “the father, if married to the mother at the time of the abortion and the mother has not yet reached the age of 18 at the time of the abortion, the maternal grandparents of the fetus. unless the pregnancy is the result of the applicant`s criminal conduct or the applicant consented to the abortion. 35 Intact D&E is the target of anti-abortion advocates who believe the procedure illustrates their claim that abortion, and especially late-term abortion, is the murder of a human life and is therefore both immoral and illegal. Critics view the procedure as infanticide,[26] a position that many in the anti-abortion movement extend to all abortions.
[27] Some proponents, both for and against abortion rights, view the intact issue of D&E as a central battleground in the broader abortion debate and seek to set a legal precedent to gradually reduce or improve access to all abortion methods. [28] Restrictions that force women to postpone abortion have a disproportionate impact on low-income women, women of color, and young women—which is one reason these groups are overrepresented among women who have abortions in the second trimester.13 And while one woman struggles to overcome legal hurdles, financial and logistical to abortion, The passage of time can make this care even more out of reach (see Figure 1).