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Suction
The abortionist first paralyzes the cervix (womb opening).  He then inserts a hollow plastic tube with a knife-like tip into the uterus.  The tube is connected to a powerful pump with a suction force 29 times more powerful than a home vacuum cleaner.  The procedure tears the baby's body into pieces and the hose frequently jerks as pieces of the baby become lodged.  The placenta is then cut from the inner wall of the uterus and the scraps are sucked out into a bottle. (photo)

Dilatation & Curettage (D&C)
Uncommon today and used during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.  This is similar to the suction procedure except that the abortionist inserts a curette, a loop-shaped steel knife up into the uterus.  He then cuts the placenta and baby into pieces and scrapes them out into a basin.  Bleeding is usually profuse.

Dilatation & Evacuation (D&E)
Performed during the second trimester (4-6 months) of pregnancy.  This method has largely replaced saline and chemical abortions, which too frequently resulted in live births, a complication from the abortionist's perspective!  A pliers-like instrument is needed because the baby's bones are calcified, as is the skull.  There is no anesthetic for the baby. The abortionist inserts the instrument into the uterus, seizes a leg or other part of the body and, with a twisting motion, tears it from the baby's body.   This is repeated again and again.  The spine must be snapped, and the skull crushed to remove them.  The nurse's job is to reassemble the body parts to be sure that all are removed.

D & X  (Partial Birth)
Also used for advanced pregnancies.  The cervix is dilated to allow passage of a ring forceps.  A foot or lower leg is located and pulled into the vagina.   The baby is extracted in breech fashion until the head is just inside the cervix. The baby's legs hang outside the woman's body.  With the baby face-down, scissors are plunged into the baby's head at the nape of the neck and spread open to enlarge the wound (see photo).  A suction tip is inserted and the baby's brain is removed. The skull collapses and the baby is delivered.  Sharp and suction curettage is continued until the walls of the womb are clean.  Read a nurse's (Brenda Pratt Shafer) eyewitness account of a partial birth procedure.

Hysterotomy
This method is usually used late in pregnancy and is likened to an "early" Caesarian section.  The mother's abdomen and uterus are surgically opened and the baby is lifted out.  Unfortunately, many of these babies are very much alive when removed.  To kill the babies, some abortionists have been known to plunge them into buckets of water or smother them with the placentas.  Still others cut the cord while the baby is still inside the uterus depriving the baby of oxygen. (photo)

Prostaglandin Abortions
Three forms, two are injected and one is a vaginal suppository.  Its first approved use was for "the induction of midtrimester abortion."  The hormone produces a violent labor and delivery of whatever size baby the mother carries.  If the baby is old enough to survive the trauma of labor, it may be born alive, but is usually too small to survive.  In one article, among the complications listed was "live birth!"

RU-486
A drug that produces an abortion taken after the mother misses her period.   Its effect is to block the use of an essential hormonal nutrient by the newly-implanted baby, who then dies, and drops off.  Note that RU-486 is not a contraceptive because it does not prevent fertilization or implantation.  It is used only after the mother has missed her period and the baby is at least two to three weeks old, with a beating heart (the fetal heart begins to beat when the woman is four days late for her period).  It is no longer effective after six or eight weeks.  See The Abortion Cocktail  article.  Read how Methotrexate - one of the drugs contained in RU486 - can cause liver damage, kidney destruction, heart muscle compromise, pulmonary failure, gastrointestinal pathology, and bone marrow suppression. It has also been reported to cause loss of speech function, strokes, and convulsions.

Sarah Brown’s mother had carried her to full term, 36 weeks, when she decided to abort her baby. That was on July 13, 1993.  The abortionist stabbed Sarah in the brain three times with a needle filled with poison. But something went "wrong"; two days later she was born live in a Wichita, Kansas, hospital. Bill and Marykay Brown obtained temporary custody of the baby within 24 hours of her birth and adopted her 30 days later. "For the first few months she seemed to be progressing normally, although she was blind," said Marykay Brown in a 1998 interview with National Right to Life News. "She had acute hearing, and was beginning to try to speak." But at about six months Sarah suffered a stroke and never fully recovered. Mrs. Brown says Sarah never spoke or walked, but "she recognized us and learned to smile."  See Abortion Survivors.

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