Ban on "Partial Birth" Abortion Soon to Become a Law in US
The bill defines partial-birth abortion as an operation in which the doctor "deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus . . . for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered fetus." Doctors violating the law would face fines and as much as two years in prison.
Abortion rights advocates, who concede there is a procedure called "dilation and extraction," said doctors resort to it only when it is medically necessary.
Although Congress has limited federal funding for abortion in the past, it has never banned a specific procedure in the three decades since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade.
