Third Trimester Procedures Chemical Instillation Methods These methods use the injection of drugs or chemicals through the abdomen or cervix into the amniotic sac to cause the death of the child and his or her expulsion from the uterus. Many different drugs have been tried and studied, 29 but the most commonly used are hypertonic saline, urea, and prostaglandin. Salt Poisoning Otherwise known as "saline amniocentesis," "salting out," or a "hypertonic saline" abortion. In this technique a needle is inserted through the mother's abdomen and 50-250 ml (as much as a cup) of amniotic fluid is withdrawn and replaced with a solution of concentrated salt. 30 (This is used after 16 weeks of pregnancy, when enough fluid has accumulated in the amniotic fluid sac surrounding the baby.) The baby is then poisoned from swallowing the salt, 31 as well as burned and shriveled from the chemical solution. 32 Usually, after an hour, the child dies. About 33 to 35 hours after instillation, the mother goes into labor and delivers a dead, burned, and shriveled baby. 33 Approximately 79% of all mothers deliver their dead babies within 72 hours. 34 Here are some of the side effects that can come from this method: hypertonic saline may initiate a condition in the mother called consumption coagulopathy (uncontrolled blood clotting throughout the body) with severe hemorrhage as well as other serious side effects on the central nervous system; 35 seizures, coma, or death may also result from saline inadvertently injected into the woman's vascular system. 36 Surgical Partial-Birth Abortion Abortionists sometimes refer to these or similar types of abortions using obscure, clinical-sounding agreeable expressions that are substituted for a realistic description of something disagreeable. An example of this is "Dilation and Extraction" (D&X), or "intact D&E" (IDE) which mask the realities of how the abortions are actually performed. 37 Partial-Birth abortion, also known as D&X, is used to cause abortion in women who are 20 to 32 weeks pregnant - or even later into pregnancy. The abortionist uses an ultrasound to guide him as he reaches into the uterus with forceps, he then grab's the unborn babies leg and pulls the baby into the birth canal, except for the head, which is deliberately kept just inside the womb. The baby is still alive at this point in the procedure. Once the abortionist has completed this first step he then inserts a scissor-like instrument into the back of the baby's skull and spreads the tips of the scissor-like instrument apart to enlarge the wound. A suction catheter is inserted into the skull where the wound was made with the scissors and the baby's brains are sucked out. The collapsed head is then removed from the uterus. 38 BACK

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