North Dakota Becomes the Third State to Ban Gruesome D&E Abortions

Brittany M. Hughes | April 12, 2019
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North Dakota just became the third state in the U.S. to ban gruesome dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortions, a procedure most often done in the second trimester and requiring an abortionist to essentially dismember an unborn child in the womb and remove it in pieces.

According to USA Today’s report, “North Dakota's legislation makes it a crime for doctors to use instruments such as clamps, scissors and forceps to remove the fetus from the womb during the second trimester.”

D&E procedures are a common form of abortion procedure and the most typical method used in second-trimester abortions, making up roughly 10 percent of all abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute. Done between 13 and 24 weeks, the procedure involves softening and dilating the woman's cervix through drugs, then using a suction to vacuum out the amniotic fluid. The abortionist then removes the baby in pieces using scissors, clamps and forceps because by this point in the pregnancy, the child is simply too big to fit through the suction tube.

Two states, Mississippi and West Virginia, have already outlawed the barbaric abortion method. Similar laws have also been passed in eight other states including Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas, but are being held up by the courts.

North Dakota only has one abortion clini – the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo – whose director, Tammy Kromenaker, says she’s waiting to hear back from her lawyers before they decide to sue.

The new law marks just the latest in an escalating state-by-state battle between the abortion industry and pro-lifers. While left-leaning states like New York and Massachusetts have moved forward to expand abortion access even to the end of the third trimester, many Republican-led states have passed new laws protecting the unborn, including measures passed in states like Georgia that ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

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