The executive vice president of Planned Parenthood says a new Mississippi law banning dismemberment abortion in which an unborn baby is extracted one piece at a time from his or her mother’s womb is an “attack on women’s health care.”
“This bill is not based in medicine,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a statement. “Governor Bryant just signed a clear attack on women’s health care as part of a plan to ban abortion across the board. Planned Parenthood will continue to fight to protect the rights of our patients and their access to safe medical care, no matter what.”
Gov. Phil Bryant (R) has signed the Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act into law. The measure – which goes into effect on July 1 – bans the type of abortions seen in the video above. In this medical animation, former abortionist, now pro-life advocate, Dr. Anthony Levatino shows what happens during the procedure, also known as “dilation and evacuation” (D&E) abortion.
Mississippi is the fourth state to ban dismemberment abortion after West Virginia, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The legislation passed the Mississippi state Senate, 40-6, and the state House, 83-33.
“We applaud any effort to end abortion in our communities and will continue to support women in crisis through our efforts with Catholic Charities, adoption services, parish-based ministries and supporting organizations such as Birthright,” said Father Kevin Slattery, vicar general of the Diocese of Jackson, reports the Catholic Herald.
“There are many faithful people out there working to give women the choice of life,” he continued. “We hope we can continue to build and strengthen those ministries for people in need.”
According to the National Abortion Federation Abortion Training Textbook, “D&E remains the most prevalent method of second-trimester pregnancy termination in the USA, accounting for 96 per cent of all second trimester abortions.”
“When the national debate focuses only on the mother, it is forgetting someone,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, National Right to Life’s director of state legislation. “Banning dismemberment abortion in Mississippi has the potential to transform the debate when people realize that living unborn children are being killed by being torn limb from limb.”
The director of public policy for Planned Parenthood Southeast, however, said the legislation represents more politicians playing doctor.
“Let’s be clear that the true intent of this legislation is not to protect women,” said Felicia Brown-Williams. “This type of bill does nothing to make abortion safer for women and is nothing more than elected officials playing doctor by legislating medical procedures.”
“Mississippi women and families need expanded access to health care,” she added. “Instead, HB 519 is designed to prohibit Mississippi women from exercising their legal right to essential health care. This is yet another attempt to chip away at women’s access to safe and legal abortion.”
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