I have seen so many posts defending abortions, but very few speaking out about why they are wrong. There is so much here, I can't deal with it all in one post. Nor did I plan to deal with it at all, but I can't help feeling that with all the discussions and mis-information, it's important that people are aware of some of the facts.

So, for this post, I am only going to talk about partial-birth abortions. Most people have no idea what these are. If they did, I don't see how anyone could defend them or how they could be legal.

A partial-birth abortion is one that takes place in the last 4.5 months of pregnancy, from 20 weeks on. Several of them take place even into the seventh month or after - that's 32 weeks or even later.

Babies as young as 24 weeks gestation, and sometimes even younger, survive outside the womb. The average gestation for twins is 37 weeks, for triplets 33 weeks, and for quads 30 weeks. Children born after 24 weeks are "viable" and many have no long-term problems. My own children were born before 35 weeks gestation, and they are perfectly healthy.

During this procedure, the baby's legs are yanked out of the mother using forceps. The entire baby is delivered, except for the head. The abortionist then jams scissors into the baby's skull and the brains are sucked out by catheter. The dead baby is then removed and discarded. For a pictoral diagram of this procedure, see this link partial birth abortion diagram.

It is terrifying to me that we live in a society that considers this to be okay. How can Scott Peterson be charged with his unborn baby's "murder", and yet we refuse to call abortion murder?