Upload, Automoderated users, edit
101
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 7:
Line 7: + + + + +
Partial birth abortion (view source)
Revision as of 01:09, October 25, 2010
, 01:09, October 25, 2010Restored historical information on the cranioclast
[[File:Cranioclast.jpg|thumb|200px| Cranioclast: an instrument used to crush
[[File:Cranioclast.jpg|thumb|200px| Cranioclast: an instrument used to crush
the skull so as to allow the extraction of a dead fetus during obstructed labor.]]
the skull so as to allow the extraction of a dead fetus during obstructed labor.]]
Prior to [[Roe vs. Wade]] and [[Doe vs. Bolton]], there was no such concept as a post-viability abortion. Abortion was, by definition, the death, either natural or inflicted, of a pre-viable fetus. The closest practice to what we know as late abortion was the [[destructive operation]], performed to remove a fetus who had died during [[obstructed labor]]. The destructive operation is sometimes still used in areas that lack the medical facilities to perform safe Cesarean sections<ref>[http://www.springerlink.com/content/l701707824138666/ Savita Rani Singhal, Pooja Chaudhry, Krishna Sangwan and Suresh Kumar Singhal, "Destructive operations in modern obstetrics", ''Archives of Gynecology'', Volume 273, Number 2, 107-109]</ref><ref>[http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/dtc/primsurg/docbook/html/x5765.html Nelson Awori et al., ''Primary Surgery'', Online Edition on special wish of the editors Maurice King and Peter C. Bewes expressed on the 8th. DTC Symposium in Jena 1999]</ref>, but elsewhere it has been supplanted.<ref>[http://www.gfmer.ch/Obstetrics_simplified/caesarean_section.htm Diaa M. EI-Mowafi, ''Obstetrics Simplified'']</ref>
With ''Roe'' and ''Doe'', the Supreme Court declared that there was a Constitutional right to an "abortion" even past fetal viability. US abortionists thus were limited in scope only by their own willingness to destroy fetal life. It was only after the [[Planned Parenthood vs. Casey]] decision that states were permitted to limit post-viability abortions. Many still do not have, or do not enforce, laws that [[Casey]] had established as enforceable.
In the immediate post-''Roe'' era, abortions past the midpoint in pregnancy were typically performed by [[saline abortion | instillation]], in which drugs or chemicals, alone or in combination, were used to cause fetal demise and induce labor. These abortions carried with them numerous drawbacks. They were risky for the mother, since the chemicals used to kill the fetus could severely injure or even kill the mother if they entered her bloodstream.<ref name="Wagatsuma1">Wagatsuma, T.: "Intraamniotic Injection of Saline for Therapeutic Abortion," ''American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology'', November 1, 1965</ref> They were also logistically challenging, requiring a typical multi-day hospital stay. Furthermore, they required a delay until about 16 weeks into the pregnancy, prior to which point there was not sufficient amniotic fluid for the practitioner to extract and replace.<ref name="Cates1">Cates, W. Jr., Schulz, K.F., Grimes D.A., et al: "The Effects of Delay and Method of Choice on the Risk of Abortion Morbidity," ''Family Planning Perspectives'', 9:266, 1977.</ref>
In the immediate post-''Roe'' era, abortions past the midpoint in pregnancy were typically performed by [[saline abortion | instillation]], in which drugs or chemicals, alone or in combination, were used to cause fetal demise and induce labor. These abortions carried with them numerous drawbacks. They were risky for the mother, since the chemicals used to kill the fetus could severely injure or even kill the mother if they entered her bloodstream.<ref name="Wagatsuma1">Wagatsuma, T.: "Intraamniotic Injection of Saline for Therapeutic Abortion," ''American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology'', November 1, 1965</ref> They were also logistically challenging, requiring a typical multi-day hospital stay. Furthermore, they required a delay until about 16 weeks into the pregnancy, prior to which point there was not sufficient amniotic fluid for the practitioner to extract and replace.<ref name="Cates1">Cates, W. Jr., Schulz, K.F., Grimes D.A., et al: "The Effects of Delay and Method of Choice on the Risk of Abortion Morbidity," ''Family Planning Perspectives'', 9:266, 1977.</ref>