¶ Dilation and Evacuation
¶ Walker Opposed Dilution And Extraction Procedure
Walker Supported Legislation To Prohibit So-Called “Dismemberment” Abortions. [Georgia Life Alliance, accessed 3/4/22]
¶ “Dismemberment Abortion” Was Term Anti-Abortion Activists Used To Describe Commonly Used Second-Trimester Procedure
Physicians Said The Term “Dismemberment Abortion” Was Medically Inaccurate And Used By Anti-Abortion Activists. According to Bridge Michigan, “But opponents of the summary language, from physicians to Planned Parenthood, say the label ‘dismemberment abortion’ is inflammatory and medically inaccurate — and state canvassers shouldn’t have allowed it to appear on ballot petitions circulated to voters. ‘That’s a term that has been made up or fabricated by folks who are anti-choice, or anti-abortion, in order to try to invoke graphic images and stir emotions and cause people to vote or sign a proposal in a reactionary way,’ Dr. Halley Crissman, an obstetrician and gynecologist who spoke on behalf of the Michigan Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists at Wednesday’s meeting, told Bridge in an interview. ‘We think that the term ‘dilation and evacuation’ accurately describes what the procedure actually is — the dilation of the cervix and the evacuation of the contents of the uterus — and it would be more neutral and less biased if the proposal used that language,’ Crissman said.” [Bridge Michigan, 6/20/19]
Abortion Rights Groups Said Eliminating Dilation And Evacuation Would Force Women Who Did Not Or Could Not Get An Abortion In The First Trimester To Choose Less Safe, Less Effective Options. According to the Associated Press, “Texas officials asked a federal appeals court’s permission Tuesday to enforce a ban on a commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure — before the court rules on its constitutionality. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard arguments on the law in November 2018. But the panel had yet to rule as of Tuesday. Last week, the same panel declined a Texas motion to allow enforcement of the law while it prepares its ruling. So, Texas officials on Tuesday asked the full 17-member court to consider the matter, essentially doing an end run around the panel. The 2017 law uses the non-medical term ‘dismemberment abortion’ to describe a procedure in which forceps and other instruments are used to remove the fetus from the womb, a process the Texas Legislature declared ‘brutal and inhumane.’ Abortion rights groups say the procedure, used in second-trimester abortions, is known as dilation and evacuation, and that eliminating it forces women who did not or could not get an abortion in the first trimester, to choose less safe, less effective options.” [Associated Press, 8/25/20]