Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee investigating Planned Parenthood’s trafficking in baby body parts held a hearing. Pro-abortion attorney Priscilla Smith was asked by a member of the Committee if she considered dismemberment abortion—pulling apart the unborn baby while still in the womb—to be a humane way for the baby to die. After an unsuccessful attempt to get around the question, Ms. Smith’s answer was, “Yes.”
What she desperately wanted was for the Committee members to totally ignore the reality of what abortion does to its victims.
I’m reminded of that phony guy in the Emerald City. “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” he cried. And who exposed him? Not the big lion or the clever girl or their companions. They stood trembling before the illusion of mighty power. No, it was a little black dog that had the idea and the courage to pull the curtain away and expose the fraud for all to see.
Words like dignity, choice and autonomy pull a curtain around abortion. The humanity of a baby is obscured by words like tissue and product of conception and jokes by abortion staffers. But pull that curtain back and the reality is clear: abortion murders children in the most brutal ways imaginable.
Consider chemical abortion, generally used early in pregnancy. Abortion pills stop production of life-sustaining hormones, making the uterus hostile so the tiny human life starves to death and then chemically-induced contractions expel the dead baby.
A suction abortion is also used during the first trimester. A cannula with a deadly sharp end is inserted into the womb and a powerful vacuum—29 times stronger than your vacuum cleaner at home—rips the placenta from the uterus, tears the baby apart and sucks the pieces into a waiting jar. Of course, as we learned from watching Planned Parenthood abortionists on undercover video, if the baby’s parts are on order, a less destructive method can be used.
A dilation and evacuation abortion—the dismemberment abortion referred to in the Committee hearing—is used during the second trimester. Forceps are used to grab the baby’s limbs. The abortionist dismembers the baby by twisting his or her body parts and pulls them piece by piece from the uterus, making a pile of human carnage on the nearby tray. A staff person has to reassemble the baby parts to ensure nothing was left behind inside the mother’s womb.
The D & X abortion is commonly called partial-birth abortion and has been used well into the third trimester. As the undercover videos reveal, even though this gruesome procedure is illegal, Planned Parenthood abortionists reach into the womb and change the baby’s presentation so he or she can be delivered feet-first, preserving the head so coveted by organ procurement companies.
All of these methods pose physical dangers to the woman, and the further along she is, the greater the danger. Life-threatening infection can set in if any part of the baby or the placenta is left behind. Sharp instruments can pierce the uterine wall and leave women to bleed to death. Within a millisecond, the strong suction can destroy a section of bowel, often requiring emergency hysterectomy to save the mother’s life, which results in infertility.
Beyond the physical dangers lie the regret and grief. While the abortion industry pretends such feelings are caused by social stigma and “shaming,” pro-lifers know they come from deep within the human instinct for life, and we reach out to women with hope for healing.
Planned Parenthood can bluster all it wants to about women’s healthcare, but behind its pink curtain is a filthy, bloody and disgusting business devoid of humanity not only for the babies but also for the mothers and for the abortionists as well. Like a cancer, abortion devours the soul. It’s up to us, the grassroots pro-life movement, to be like brave little Toto and keep tugging on that curtain. Here’s an effective way to do it.
First, acknowledge the pain and heartache a woman goes through when faced with an unexpected pregnancy. Then say that the rights of women and the rights of the unborn can be joined. We reach out to every woman faced with the agony of abortion and say to her: Your life and the life of your baby are both important, and we will not desert either one of you. We want to love you both.
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