The Procedure
A live-birth abortion involves three basic steps. First, the physician opens the cervix—the neck of the uterus that usually remains tightly closed until the time of delivery—using either Cytotec or laminaria (little match-like sticks composed of seaweed). Cytotec is the usual choice. He inserts one 200-microgram pill or two 100-microgram pills in or near the cervix, irritating it and causing it to open. Second, after the cervix opens, the small baby—usually in its second trimester—literally drops out of the womb. Sometimes, the baby dies in the process. However, many are born alive—thus the name, "live-birth" abortion. In this case, the third step is letting the baby die. A nurse may hold the baby ("comfort care") or leave her to die alone. In some cases, hospital workers have suffocated, drowned or beaten the babies to death.
Babies may also be born alive in incomplete, or "botched," abortions. The confusing Casey decision implies that babies born alive are not legally protected persons if they are not viable. Interestingly, when so-called "wanted" babies are born prematurely, physicians make heroic efforts to save them and optimize their physical condition. However, if a born-alive child is marked for death—the target of abortion—her life has no value, by the Stenberg and Casey standards. In a modern civilization, this thinking is barbaric, to say the least, and unconstitutional, to be sure.
Other Ethical Problems
The phenomenon of infants born alive and left to die is not limited to a few isolated incidents. "The procedure, in which physicians induce premature labor, has been an option for decades at hospitals around the country," reported the Chicago Tribune.3 Jill Stanek, a nurse at Christ Hospital in suburban Chicago, came forward in 1999 to reveal the hospital’s routine infanticide. CWA of Illinois State Director Karen Hayes helped publicize the atrocity and convinced the Illinois Attorney General to investigate the hospital. Christ Hospital officials claimed doctors only used the procedure when the child had life-threatening defects. However, Jill witnessed doctors performing the procedure on babies with Down syndrome and spina bifida. The procedure outraged former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop: "Abortion for spina bifida is not indicated unless one is committed to a practice of eugenics."4
Further, an in-house memo from Christ Hospital’s genetics program to the Obstetrics Department sought notification of all still births, premature deaths and abortions.5 In addition, a brochure from Advocate Health Care, Christ Hospital’s parent company, announced the hospital now offers stem-cell transplants.6 Doubtless, with the tide in stem-cell research, the ethical and moral compromises over the lives of infants slated for abortion may surge.