Massachusetts Bill Banning Partial Birth Abortions (H 1452)

H 1452 would prohibit physicians from performing certain types of abortion procedures after the first trimester.

Under H 1452, any person who intentionally causes the death of a living intact fetus while that living intact fetus is partially born would be punished by a fine between $500 and $2,000, or by imprisonment anywhere form three months to five years, or both.

The bill defines “partially born” as the delivery of a living unborn fetus’s body, with the entire head attached, so that any of the following has occurred:

• The living intact fetus’s entire head, in the case of a cephalic presentation, of any portion of the living intact fetus’s torso above the naval, in the case of a breech presentation, is delivered past the mother’s vaginal opening; or
• The living intact fetus’s entire head, in the case of a cephalic presentation, of any portion of the living intact fetus’s torso above the naval, in the case of a breech presentation, is delivered outside the mother’s external abdominal wall.

In addition, “sharp curettage abortion” or “suction curettage abortion” is defined as “an abortion in which the developing child and the products of conception are evacuated from the uterus with a sharp curettage or through a suction cannula with an attached vacuum apparatus.”

The bill would not prohibit a physician from taking measures they deem necessary to save the life of the mother if every reasonable precaution is also taken to save the child’s life and they certify in writing that it was medically necessary.

 

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