What the nurse saw...
In September, 1993, Brenda Pratt Shafer, a registered nurse with thirteen years of experience, was assigned by her nursing agency to an abortion clinic. Since Nurse Shafer considered herself "very pro-choice", she didn’t think this assignment would be a problem. She was wrong.
This is what Nurse Shafer saw:
"I stood at the doctor’s side and watched him perform a partial-birth abortion on a woman who was six months pregnant. The baby’s heartbeat was clearly visible on the ultrasound screen. The doctor delivered the baby’s body and arms, everything but his little head. The baby’s body was moving. His little fingers were clasping together. He was kicking his feet. 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, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall. Then the doctor opened the scissors up. Then he stuck the high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby’s brains out. Now the baby was completely limp.
"I never went back to the clinic. But I am still haunted by the face of that little boy. It was the most perfect, angelic face I have ever seen."
The medical drawings below depict the partial-birth abortion procedure. They have been validated as technically accurate by medical experts on both sides of the abortion issue. The partial-birth abortion procedure is used after 20 weeks (4-1/2 months) of pregnancy — often to six months, and later.
Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby’s leg with forceps.
The baby’s leg is pulled out into the birth canal.
The abortionist delivers the baby’s entire body, except for the head.
The abortionist jams scissors into the baby’s skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge the hole.
The scissors are removed and a suction tube is inserted. The child’s brains are sucked out causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed.
- Dr. Martin Haskell has performed over 1,000 partial-birth abortions. In a tape-recorded interview with American Medical News, he said, "I’ll be quite frank: most of my abortions are elective in that 20-24 week range ... 80% are purely elective."
- Some defenders of this procedure falsely claim that anesthesia given to the mother kills the baby before the procedure. But the American Society of Anesthesiologists says anesthesia given to the mother does not kill or harm the baby — and it does not reliably protect the baby from pain.
- Dr. Pamela Smith, Director of Medical Education in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Chicago, said, "There are absolutely no obstetrical situations encountered in this country which require a partially delivered human fetus to be destroyed to preserve the health of the mother."