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I didn’t know only 3 US doctors did 3rd trimester abortions. That says a lot.

So the ban didn’t take? They just do something besides “dilation and extraction”?

Actually, most third trimester abortions just use the same procedures as second trimester abortions. The doctors simply do a souped up version of the second trimester abortion by dilating the cervix further, using greater amounts of poison, and probing the womb with bigger forceps to prevent any "complications" (usually botching an abortion this late in the pregnancy results in live birth since the baby is viable outside the womb). It's a common misconception that all third trimester abortion is accomplished by partial-birth abortion (ID&X). I have no background in medicine, but most medical experts have testified that the ID&X "partial-birth abortion" technique is never medically necessary, that's why it was banned.

There are at least three medical procedures associated with late-term (third trimester) abortions:

1) Dilation and evacuation (D&E)
2) Early induction of labor (Induction abortion)
3) Intact dilation and extraction (IDX or D&X), known as "partial-birth abortion"

You can look up the details online of how these three different procedures work, I won't post it because it's pretty disturbing stuff. They also used to do third trimester abortions two other ways, by 4) Saline Abortion and 5) Hysterotomy (basically the abortion version of a C-section except in this case the baby is dead when the stomach is cut open). Those techniques have now become "outdated" however.

I'm guessing Tiller used the "Dilation and evacuation" and early induction of labor methods for pregnancies past 24 weeks. If he was performing partial-birth abortions he would be violating federal law (though I wouldn't put it past him to do something illegal like that)

So basically, third trimester abortion wasn't banned in the U.S., only partial-birth abortion. However, most abortion clinics will refuse to do them. It should be noted that in most "modern western nations" that allow abortion, like England, France, Germany, Australia, Canada, etc., still never-the-less prohibit third trimester except to save the mother's life. The U.S. is one of the exceptions that allows third trimester abortions.

I wonder how politicians like Mark Kirk can sleep at night when they vote in favor of this stuff. They have to have read the details of the procedures. Pretty sick stuff.

Also of note, it's true that roughly only 0.08% of abortions in the U.S. every year are preformed during the third trimester of pregnancy. However, with the sheer number of abortions in the U.S., that still amounts to roughly 1,032 “third trimester” abortions per year in this country.