Missouri's abortion war is far from over. A technique called dilation and extraction, also known as D & E or partial birth abortion, is sparking controversy in the Missouri capital.
Although not new, the technique is uncommon in Missouri. But the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill to ban all partial birth abortions.
Abortion activists say the procedure should remain available.
Naomi Smith has more from Jefferson City.
Partial birth abortion procedures abort fetuses in the second or third trimester of pregnancy. During the three-day procedure, physicians use forceps to turn the fetus into a breech position and pull it out from the mother's womb. Brain tissue is then extracted from the skull of the fetus.
Abortion opponents, like Senator Ted House, say the procedure is inhumane.
But contrary to House's assumption, there is opposition to legislative involvement with this procedure. Paula Gianino (GA-NEE-NO), president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood in the St. Louis region, says legislators are overstepping their boundaries and should allow physicians to decide the health of women. Gianino (GA-NEE-NO) says partial birth abortions are necessary when a there is a life-threathening condition of the fetus or mother.Tammy Watts knows this from experience. Watts, who underwent the procedure two years ago because the fetus she was carrying had a lethal chromosome condition, says she's made the best choice for her child.
Watts says her unborn child would not have lived long enough to be born.But Patty Skain, executive director of Missouri's Right to Life, says even terminally ill fetuses should have a chance to live.
Skain also says most partial birth abortions are not done on fetuses that are terminally ill.House, who introduced the partial birth abortion bill, agrees. He says many healthy women have the D & X procedure done on healthy fetuses.
House says any female in Missouri can have this procedure done.But Coletta Eichenburger, vice president for community affairs of Planned Parenthood in Columbia, says not all expectant mothers are able to have this procedure.
Eichenburger also says some families who have terminally ill fetuses want a partial birth abortion to physically hold, grieve, baptize and bury the fetus.Watts, who met with President Clinton last April when he vetoed the national partial birth bill, buried her fetus after its birth. She says having the abortion was the most difficult period in her life.
But things are looking up for her.
She is pregnant again...this time with a healthy baby.
From the state capital, I'm Naomi Smith.