by Guy Page
Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan deplores a recent federal court decision upholding a state’s right to ban second trimester ‘dismemberment’ abortions.
“I am disappointed in the Fifth Circuit’s decision to uphold Texas’s law essentially banning the most common form of second trimester abortions – a plain affront to Roe v. Wade – depriving women of basic healthcare rights,” Donovan said on Twitter August 19.
The “most common form of second trimester abortions” to which the Vermont Attorney General refers is dismemberment, tearing the fetus limb from limb, a prominent pro-life news site reports.
The facts of the case were reported August 19 in LifeNews:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Whole Woman’s Health v. Paxton, has reversed a lower court and upheld a Texas pro-life law banning dismemberment abortions that tear babies limb from limb. The court voted 9-5 for the pro-life law.
Texas Senate Bill 8 prohibits dismemberment abortions, a method typically used in the second trimester to kill nearly fully-formed, living unborn babies. It is a barbaric and dangerous procedure in which the unborn baby is ripped apart in the womb and pulled out in pieces while his or her heart is still beating.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked enforcement of the law last year. But Texas sought, and was granted a re-hearing by the full court. Jennifer Walker Elrod and Don Willett issued the majority opinion and concurring in the result were judges Priscilla Owen, Edith Jones, Jerry Smith, Catharina Haynes, James Ho, Kurt Engelhardt and Cory Wilson.