illegitimate source...why would a bunch of lying POS antilife folks care? Abortion providers have proven to be known lyers. and you fall right in with them huh?
Planned Parenthood Lies About Anesthesia
During initial testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on November 17, 1995 concerning the legislation to ban partial-birth abortion, Dr. Norig Ellison, the president of the 34,000-member American Society of Anesthesiologists, gave testimony to the fact that anethesia given to the mother during the abortion procedure is not enough to kill the unborn child.
After Dr. Ellison presented his prepared testimony, the following exchange occured between Senator Spence Abraham and Dr. Mary Campbell, medical director of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washingon.
Senator Abraham [to Dr. Campbell]: Would you make the statement then that the fetus dies due to the anesthesia? Is that your position?
Dr. Campbell: I think the fetus has no pain because of the anesthesia. I do not...
Sen. Abraham: No, I'm asking you whether you think that's what causes the fetus to die?
Dr. Campbell: I do not know what causes the fetus to die. The fetuses are dead when delivered.
Sen. Abraham: Well, let me just direct you, if I could - I have here a factsheet that indicates it was prepared by you, which relates to the legislation...
[Sen. Abraham was referring to "H.R. 1833, Medical Questions and Answers," which contains the caption "Fact Sheet prepared by Mary Campbell, M.D." This document was circulated for every member of the House of Representatives in October before the partial-birth abortion ban came up for a vote in the U.S. House. This document contains the following passage:
"Q: When does the fetus die?
"A: The fetus dies of an overdose of anesthesia given to the mother intravenously. A dose is calculated for the mother's weight which is 50 to 100 times the weight of the fetus. The mother gets the anesthesia for each insertion of the dilators, twice a day. This induces brain death in a fetus in a matter of minutes. Fetal demise therefore occurs at the beginning of the procedure while the fetus is still in the womb."]
Dr. Campbell: I was quoting Dr. McMahon [a developer of the partial-birth abortion technique] at the time... [There is no reference to Dr. McMahon anywhere in Dr. Campbell's five-page factsheet.]
Sen. Abraham: So you no longer adhere to the position that you say in here, "the fetus dies of an overdose of anesthesia given to the mother intravenously." That is no longer your position?
Dr. Campbell: I believe that is true.
Sen. Abraham: You believe that is true?
Dr. Campbell: I believe that is true.
Sen. Abraham: Dr. Ellison, would you like to comment on that?
Dr. Ellison (president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists): There is absolutely no basis in scientific fact for that statement. There is -- I can present you a study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1989 ... of 5,400 cases of women having surgery having general anesthesia or regional anesthesia in which the fetus did not suffer demise. I think the suggestion that the anesthesia given to the mother, be it regional or general, is going to cause brain death of the fetus is without basis of fact.
Dr. Campbell: I have not said brain death... [Her factsheet indicates: This [anesthesia] induces brain death in a fetus in a matter of minutes.]
Sen. Abraham: Well, that's what you are saying today, but in this factsheet, which you prepared I believe fairly recently, it says, "The fetus dies" -- there's no qualifying regarding breathing or anything else -- "of an overdose of anesthesia." I mean, that's a very clear statement assertion.
Dr. Campbell: [Pause] I simplified that for Congress. [Outburst of laughter from the audience.] I do not actually believe that you want a full discussion of when death occurs.
Sen. Abraham: Well, we are forced to make those decisions, and I guess my question is that how many other things woulod you say in the factsheet or in your statements today have been likewise simplified in this dramatic fashion?
Source: Senate Judiciary Committee hearing record J-104-54, Nov. 17, 1995.
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Recognizing how distressing such accounts are to persons of normal moral sensibilities, on numerous occasions, leading opponents of the bill, including syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman and NARAL President Kate Michelman, repeatedly insisted that anesthesia given to the mother peacefully induces a painless death in the fetus before the rest of the procedure is performed. This claim was widely accepted and repeated as fact in news stories and editorial commentaries. Here is how Michelman put it on one occasion:
The other side grossly distorted the procedure. There is no such thing as a 'partial-birth.' ... before the procedure begins, the anesthesia that they give the woman already causes the demise of the fetus. That is, it is not true that they're born partially.
(KMOX-AM radio, St. Louis, Nov. 2, 1995)
Thus, Ms. Michelman argued that it was misleading to call this process a "partial-birth," precisely because, she claimed, these fetuses were already dead from the anesthesia before they were removed.
Under questioning by Senator Abraham, Planned Parenthood's Dr. Campbell, who wrote the "fact sheet" quoted above, admitted, "I do not know what causes the fetus to die. . . . I simplified that for Congress. I do not believe that you want a full discussion of when death occurred."
In a hearing on anesthesia and fetal pain before the House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee on March 21, 1995, the "anesthesia myth" was again emphatically refuted by Dr. Ellison and by Dr. David Birnbach, the president-elect of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology. They testified that a local anesthetic -- which is what Dr. Martin Haskell's paper specifies -- does not affect the fetus. These experts also testified that dosages of general anesthesia, safe for the mother, would provide little if any pain relief to the baby, much less induce "fetal demise."
Dr. Birnbach testified, "Having administered anesthesia for fetal surgery, I know that on occasion we need to administer anesthesia directly to the fetus because even at these early ages the fetus moves away from the pain of the stimulation." [hearing record, page 288]
In an attempt to recover, the proponents of the anesthesia myth claimed that Dr. McMahon had given his patients does of narcotic anesthesia of 36 to 100 times the normal dose. Dr. Birnbach responded, "Although there is no evidence that this massive dose will cause fetal demise, there is clear evidence that this excessive dose could cause maternal |
