"The doctor delivered the baby's body and arms, everything but his little head. The baby's body was moving. The doctor took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the back of the baby's head, and the baby's arms jerked out in a flinch. Then he stuck the high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby's brains out. Now the baby was completely limp (Partial Birth Abortion - All sides 1)."

While these third trimester or partial birth abortions only occur in 1% of all abortions (Partial 2), Ron Fitsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers estimates that three to four thousand partial birth abortions are performed annually in the United State; about ten a day. As of December 1998, only 23 states have passed anti-partial birth abortion (PBA) laws (Kellman 1). However, with the exception of Virginia, all have been declared unconstitutional or susp

Erbe, Bonnie. " 'Pro-choice' drive needs jump start." Daily Times. 21 Oct. 1999

It is time to stop playing games, and pass a piece of legislation everyone can agree on without obscuring the intent of the bill to one side or the other. Despite all the differences of opinion in the Congress, there was also a large degree of consensus. There is a general agreement that PBA's should be allowed if it is necessary to save the life of the mother and should be allowed if the fetus is dead. There is also agreement that PBA's should not be allowed for ordinary health reasons, or in cases of rape or incest. Added to this should also be a provision which would allow partial birth abortions in instances where the fetus would be born severely malformed and would die within hours or days of birth. Specific instances of this would include where the child would be born with only a brain stem and not a functioning brain. If the baby were to be delivered normally, it would die in a few days, and never attain consciousness, making it more of a precisely constructed doll than a baby. This bill, following previous attempts made by both the United States Congress and the individual state legislatures would hold the doctor performing the operation liable, and not the mother.

The United States Congress isn't the only legislature having difficulty passing PBA legislation; state legislatures are facing issues of unconstitutionality as well. An Arkansas State law regarding PBA's was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge in November 1998. The court found that the law was unconstitutionally vague and could have the effect of banning all abortions. Laws in Iowa, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Wisconsin were dec

Some common words found in the essay are:
President Clinton, United Congress, Jersey Wisconsin, Abortion Providers, Nurse Shafer, Democratic Liberal, Republican Conservative, Birth Abortion, PBA Democratic, partial birth, Pratt Shafer, birth abortions, partial birth abortions, birth abortion, partial birth abortion, declared unconstitutional, president clinton, babies inches, 21 oct 1999, vetoed president, baby's body, pass legislation, pba's allowed, agreement pba's allowed, times 21 oct,
Approximate Word count = 1152
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)