Always forgetting who the real victims of abortion are, the abortion movement and like-minded media outlets have painted a recent dismemberment abortion law as an unjust blow to their cause. On April 7, Kansas’ Pro-Life Governor Sam Brownback signed the “Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act,” a measure that outlaws the inhumane practice of dismembering live, pain-capable children in utero. The New York Times, consistently and notoriously complicit with the antics of the abortion industry, ran the following headline on the heels of the signing: “Kansas Limits Abortion Method, Opening New Line of Attack.” A new line of attack on whom? The way we see, the bill closed a line of attack on the most vulnerable Kansans. The Times’ reasoning? You guessed the answer: the abortion industry.
Poor abortion industry. The legislature’s decision to protect the six hundred babies who suffer horrific dismemberment abortions annually in Kansas must be such a painful blow. Obliterating the arms, legs, rib cage, and skull of a late-term child with the teeth of a Sopher clamp, after all, is legal in most states! Why did Kansas have to go and upset the status quo – why did they have to interfere with reproductive justice?
Perhaps leaders like the Kansas Legislature and Governor Sam Brownback sense the brutality in dismemberment abortions (also called “Dilation and Evacuation,” or “D&E” abortion procedure). One former abortionist, Dr. Anthony Levatino, shares how abortionists can collect $600 cash in fifteen minutes thanks to dismemberment abortions. That’s $2,400 an hour, but who’s counting? Certainly not the dismayed abortionists who were effectively divested of future collective dividends of $360,000 annually by losing their right to commit dismemberment abortions. Dr. Levatino describes:
With suction complete, look for your Sopher clamp. This instrument is about thirteen inches long and made of stainless steel. At one end are located jaws about 2 ½ inches long and about ¾ on an inch wide with rows of sharp ridges or teeth. This instrument is for grasping and crushing tissue. When it gets hold of something, it does not let go.
A second trimester D&E abortion is a blind procedure. The baby can be in any orientation or position inside the uterus. Picture yourself reaching in with the Sopher clamp and grasping anything you can. At twenty weeks gestation, the uterus is thin and soft so be careful not to perforate or puncture the walls. Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard – really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about 4 to 5 inches long. Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the jaw and pull really hard once again and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs.
The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby that age is about the size of a plum and is now free floating inside the uterine cavity. You can be pretty sure you have hold of it if the Sopher clamp is spread about as far as your fingers will allow. You will know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see a pure white gelatinous material issue from the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces. If you have a really bad day like I often did, a little face may come out and stare back at you.
(Emphasis added.) Take a moment to read Dr. Levatino’s full account of the lucrative procedure, from meeting the young mother to cashing out in fifteen minutes, at the website of Priests for Life.
We’ve noticed that some Pro-Lifers have poo-pooed this measure, calling the Governor’s endeavor “pointless” because, they say, abortionists will simply devise a new method of killing preborn children late in pregnancy to skirt the law. And somehow that fact, in their minds, negates the efficacy of outlawing dismemberment abortion. While the projection that abortionists will contrive a new method may be true—we recognize that the abortion industry is committed to abortion, no matter what, and they really do mean no. matter. what.—we fail to see how protecting children from the horrific act of violence described by Dr. Levatino could ever be painted as a negative step by any real Pro-Life advocate. The legislation calls public attention to the arms and legs, ribs and skull of fully formed human beings ripped from their mothers’ wombs in late-term abortion. This attention and discussion could be a powerful way to show people the personhood of the preborn.
