Partial birth abortion

Partial birth abortion is a medical procedure in which a baby is almost born (except for the head) and then killed. [1]

Partial birth abortions are performed during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. "Partial birth" refers to the fact that, from a legal perspective, birth occurs when the head emerges from the birth canal^{[Citation Needed]}. The United States Congress enacted the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act [2] in 2003.

The Supreme Court upheld the ban by a 5 to 4 decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, on 18 April 2007.

From PriestsForLife.org [3] The ban prohibits:

"knowingly perform[ing] a partial-birth abortion...that is [not] necessary to save the life of the mother," 18 U.S.C. Section 1531(a). It defines "partial-birth abortion," Section 1531(b)(1), as a procedure in which the doctor: "(A) deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the [mother's] body..., or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunck past the navel is outside the [mother's] body..., for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus"; and "(B) performs the overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills the fetus."