'''Partial birth abortion''' is a medical procedure in which a baby is almost born (except for the head) and then killed. [http://www.abortioninfo.net/facts/pba.shtml]
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{{fact}}. The United States Congress enacted the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act [http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/abortion/2003s3.html] 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 [http://www.priestsforlife.org/pba/supreme-court-pba-ban.pdf] The ban prohibits:
<blockquote>"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."</blockquote>
[[Category:Abortion]]