Several states seek to block 2nd trimester abortion method
(AP) — Abortion opponents in Mississippi, West Virginia and several other states are filing bills to ban an abortion procedure commonly used in the second trimester that opponents describe as dismembering a fetus.
The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents abortion providers in legal fights, says banning the dilation and evacuation method of abortion — commonly called "D&E" — is unconstitutional because it interferes with private medical decisions.
"Laws like these are an attack on women's health, personal autonomy, and the doctor-patient relationship, and they have the potential to force physicians to subject women seeking safe and legal abortion services in the second trimester to additional invasive and unnecessary procedures," Kelly Baden, the center's director of state advocacy, said in a letter this week to West Virginia lawmakers.
The Center for Reproductive Rights says it is not always medically necessary to induce fetal death before starting an abortion, and it's never required before 18 weeks, when most women would be seeking abortions.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says there is no evidence that inducing fetal death makes second-trimester abortions safer.
The U.S. Supreme Court later this year will consider the constitutionality of a 2011 Mississippi law that requires physicians at the state's only abortion clinic to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital.