Arkansas lawmakers introduce bill banning second trimester dismemberment abortions

This week, lawmakers in Arkansas introduced legislation that would ban the second-trimester abortion procedure dilation and evacuation (D&E), better known as dismemberment abortions because they consist of pulling a preborn baby apart, limb from torso, in the womb.

HB 1032, the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act, would subject abortionists who perform dismemberment abortions to a maximum six-year prison sentence and $10,000 fine.

Rep. Andy Mayberry is both the bill author and president of Arkansas Right to Life.

“What I am hopeful of is that it does bring a new light to the subject, that it does help educate maybe some expectant mothers,” he said of the bill’s potential benefits (in addition to protecting preborn children from a particularly gruesome form of abortion). “It’s a very savage procedure, it’s cruel and barbaric and it’s something I don’t think should exist in a civilized society.”

Despite what the procedure entails, abortion advocates falsely claim that “dismemberment abortion” is a “medically inaccurate” name for D&E. The National Abortion Federation’s guide on dismemberment abortions actually removes the baby from the diagram, instead depicting forceps entering an empty uterus.

Nevertheless, NAF’s own instructional materials describe “grasping a fetal part,” then “withdraw[ing] the forceps while gently rotating it,” for the purpose of achieving “separation.” It also describes “fetal extremit[ies]” (i.e., limbs), “fetal trunk[s],” and “fetal skeletal development.”

Additionally, notorious late-term abortionist Warren Hern has admitted that “there is no possibility of denial of an act of destruction by the operator [of D&E procedures]. It is before one’s eyes. The sensations of dismemberment flow through the forceps like an electric current.”

Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino describes dismemberment abortions in greater detail in the following video, which is part of Live Action News’s Abortion Procedures project:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgw4X7Dw_3k]

Planned Parenthood Great Plains president Laura McQuade has, unsurprisingly, confirmed the abortion giant affiliate’s opposition to HB 1032. However, Arkansas retains a Republican governor, state House, and state Senate following the 2016 elections, and is ranked the fourth most pro-life state in America by Americans United for Life, making the dismemberment abortion ban likely to become law.