http://www.emedicinehealth.com/abortion/page5_em.htm
•Dilatation and extraction
◦This procedure is accomplished by cervical preparation similar to cases of dilatation and evacuation, but the fetus is removed in a mostly intact condition. The fetal head s able to be collapsed after the contents are evacuated so that it may pass through the cervix.
◦Very few providers perform the procedure. It is usually reserved for cases of maternal medical complications or serious medical problems with the fetus.
◦The procedure, referred to as intact dilatation and extraction, called partial-birth abortion, has now been banned by a 2007 Supreme Court ruling.
◦To avoid performing a partial birth abortion while performing a legal dilatation and extraction, digitalis or potassium chloride may be injected onto the fetus to induce preoperative fetal death. Fetal cord cutting may accomplish this as well.
◦Research has not firmly established at what age a healthy fetus can feel pain, but generally it is thought that this occurs around 24-28 weeks.
I googled abortion clinics, and most of the ones that I looked at offered this procedure for second trimester abortions. One that I looked at in Boulder offered third trimester abortions (and interestingly, after declaring that the government had no right to tell a woman she couldn't abort the child in it's 3rd trimester, they then offered to have memorial services for the baby so that the family could say goodbye - for a nominal fee I'm sure...

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It looks like these procedures are happening, the doctors just found a way to subvert getting into trouble for it by poisoning it until it dies, then sucking it's brains out. It's a little less gory, I suppose.
None of us knows what each of the women considering this procedure is really going through. Back in the 50's, my mother's 2nd child was born anencephalic. She poor little thing had no chance at survival. Back then, of course, there was no way to know this in advance. She only rarely talked about it, but a few times she described what she was told the baby looked like (they never let her even see her). When I was in nursing school, the L&D unit had a photo album of congenital deformities in babies born there. I was looking through it and found a baby that was very possibly my older sister. I wish I could have this discussion with her, to find out what she would have done if she had these options back then.
Before this debate, I was not aware of the injection of KCl or Digoxin in utero to cause death prior to the evacuation of the baby in these later abortions. Even though we've not agreed with some of the aspects of this discussion, it was educational. Thanks, folks!
