Actually, as you'll see or read, she didn't quite say late-term abortion was sacred ground. What she said, by way of avoiding admitting there is no difference between the horrors Kermit Gosnell was prosecuted for and what the law of the land explicitly allows, is this:
I've responded to you to the extent that I'm going to respond to you. Because I want to tell you something. As the mother of five children, my oldest child was 6 years old the day I brought my 5th child home from the hospital, as a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this. I don't think it should have anything to do with politics. And that's where you're taking it and I'm not going there.Which is to say: life is so sacred that I shouldn't have to be pinned down on my duty to protect it. Or: it's a sin to even talk about this!
I wonder if Ms. Pelosi would also be uncomfortable reading the text of Gonzales v. Carhart, which describes what the most common second term abortion procedure in the United States is like (85-90% of our annual 1.3 million abortions take place in the first three months). In the second term, the most typical procedure is like this. From the Court decision.
A doctor must first dilate the cervix at least to the extent needed to insert surgical instruments into the uterus and to maneuver them to evacuate the fetus. Nat. Abortion Federation, supra, at 465; App. in No. 05-1382, at 61. The steps taken to cause dilation differ by physician and gestational age of the fetus. See, e.g., Carhart, 331 F. Supp. 2d, at 852, 856, 859, 862-865, 868, 870, 873-874, 876-877, 880, 883, 886. A doctor often begins the dilation process by inserting osmotic dilators, such as laminaria (sticks of seaweed), into the cervix. The dilators can be used in combination with drugs, such as misoprostol, that increase dilation. The resulting amount of dilation is not uniform, and a doctor does not know in advance how an individual patient will respond. In general the longer dilators remain in the cervix, the more it will dilate. Yet the length of time doctors employ osmotic dilators varies. Some may keep dilators in the cervix for two days, while others use dilators for a day or less. Nat. Abortion Federation, supra, at 464-465; Planned Parenthood, supra, at 961.That, see, the Court is okay with. Is it different in magnitude than Gosnell? What the decision bans is a variation on this grisly procedure in which the baby is turned to breech position, all but the head is delivered, and then the doctor stabs the baby in the head and collapses the head for delivery.
After sufficient dilation the surgical operation can commence. The woman is placed under general anesthesia or conscious sedation. The doctor, often guided by ultrasound, inserts grasping forceps through the woman's cervix and into the uterus to grab the fetus. The doctor grips a fetal part with the forceps and pulls it back through the cervix and vagina, continuing to pull even after meeting resistance from the cervix. The friction causes the fetus to tear apart. For example, a leg might be ripped off the fetus as it is pulled through the cervix and out of the woman. The process of evacuating the fetus piece by piece continues until it has been completely removed. A doctor may make 10 to 15 passes with the forceps to evacuate the fetus in its entirety, though sometimes removal is completed with fewer passes. Once the fetus has been evacuated, the placenta and any remaining fetal material are suctioned or scraped out of the uterus. The doctor examines the different parts to ensure the entire fetal body has been removed. See, e.g., Nat. Abortion Federation, supra, at 465; Planned Parenthood, supra, at 962.
Some doctors, especially later in the second trimester, may kill the fetus a day or two before performing the surgical evacuation. They inject digoxin or potassium chloride into the fetus, the umbilical cord, or the amniotic fluid. Fetal demise may cause contractions and make greater dilation possible. Once dead, moreover, the fetus' body will soften, and its removal will be easier. Other doctors refrain from injecting chemical agents, believing it adds risk with little or no medical benefit. Carhart, supra, at 907-912; Nat. Abortion Federation, supra, at 474-475.
If you ask me, the banned procedure, horrifying as it is (and don't get me wrong, I'm glad we could ban something, to establish a limit on abortion), is actually more humane than the acceptable procedure, where the doctor pulls the baby apart limb by limb -- clearly more painful and more prolonged. We can't just kill the fetus, we have to torture it besides.
This is Pelosi's sacred ground. It's a sin to even bring it up.
