[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 98 (Thursday, June 15, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H6025-H6026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    THE BARBARIC METHODS OF ABORTION

  (Mr. SMITH of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, the dirty secret of the pro-
abortion movement is the method of abortions themselves. More than two 
decades after Roe the Nation remains woefully uninformed concerning the 
violent and abusive methods routinely used to kill unborn babies. The 
abortion industry has cleverly sanitized and marketed abortion with an 
endless stream of euphemisms. In abortion mills throughout the land 
abortionists dismember kids with razor blade tipped knives connected to 
suction machines or inject deadly poisons into the child.
  Today hearings begin in the Committee on the Judiciary to outlaw what 
is known as partial birth abortions. Here is how the originator of this 
terrible method of abortion describes it: [[Page H6026]] 
  After delivering most of the baby he says the surgeon then takes a 
pair of blunt, curved, Metzenbaum scissors in the right hand. He 
carefully advances the tip, curved down, along the spine and under his 
middle finger until he feels it contact the base of the skull under the 
tip of his middle finger. The surgeon then forces the scissors into the 
base of the skull. Having safely entered the skull, he spreads the 
scissors and then they suck the brains out of that baby.
  Mr. Speaker, this is barbaric. This legislation would outlaw this 
egregiously barbaric procedure.
  The surgical assistant places an ultrasound probe on the patient's 
abdomen and scans the fetus, locating the lower extremities. This scan 
provides the surgeon information about the orientation of the fetus and 
approximate location of the lower extremities. The tranducer is then 
held in position over the lower extremities.
  The surgeon introduces a large grasping forcep, such as a Bierer or 
Hern, through the vaginal and cervical canals into the corpus of the 
uterus. Based upon his knowledge of fetal orientation, he moves the tip 
of the instrument carefully towards the fetal lower extremities. When 
the instrument appears on the sonogram screen, the surgeon is able to 
open and close its jaws to firmly and reliably grasp a lower extremity. 
The surgeon then applies firm traction to the instrument causing a 
version of the fetus (if necessary) and pulls the extremity into the 
vagina.
  By observing the movement of the lower extremity and version of the 
fetus on the ultrasound screen, the surgeon is assured that his 
instrument has not inappropriately grasped a maternal structure.
  With a lower extremity in the vagina, the surgeon uses his fingers to 
deliver the opposite lower extremity, then the torso, the shoulders and 
the upper extremities.
  The skull lodges at the internal cervical os. Usually there is not 
enough dilation for it to pass through. The fetus is oriented dorsum or 
spine up.
  At this point, the right-handed surgeon slides the fingers of the 
left hand along the back of the fetus and ``hooks'' the shoulders of 
the fetus with the index and ring fingers (palm down). Next he slides 
the tip of the middle finger along the spine towards the skull while 
applying traction to the shoulders and lower extremities. The middle 
finger lifts and pushes the anterior cervical lip out of the way.
  While maintaining this tension, lifting the cervix and applying 
traction to the shoulders with the fingers of the left hand, the 
surgeon takes a pair of blunt curved Metzenbaum scissors in the right 
hand. He carefully advances the tip, curved down, along the spine and 
under his middle finger until he feels it contact the base of the skull 
under the tip of his middle finger.
  Reassessing proper placement of the closed scissors tip and safe 
elevation of the cervix, the surgeon then forces the scissors into the 
base of the skull. Having safely entered the skull, he spreads the 
scissors to enlarge the opening.
  The surgeon removes the scissors and introduces a suction catheter 
into this hole and evacuates the skull contents.


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