Will the partial birth abortion ban prevent one abortion? Or will it just limit the doctor from not using a dilation and evacuation procedure and forcing the doctor to use another (less safe?) abortion procedure?
The Act itself is here.
The specific provisions begin on page 16.
Basically, any physician who performs a partial-birth abortion gets a fine and/or not more than two years in jail. But it doesn’t apply to “must save the life of the mother” situations.
A partial-birth abortion is defined here as one in which the fetus’s head or other large body part is allowed to emerge entirely from the woman’s vagina, at which point the fetus is killed and the rest of the body forcibly delivered.
Will it “prevent” abortions? Probably not, because how would you police something like that? Unless you’re going to set up 24/7 video surveillance on every abortion provider in the United States…
Back when any kind of abortion was illegal, there were still abortion providers. Making it illegal didn’t stop them. And I don’t suppose that making partial-birth abortions illegal will stop certain people, either.
I think the idea of making it illegal is to punish those who do it. Of course it won’t stop some people, but at least they’ll be thrown in jail when they continue to do it.
The question is does it ban all late term abortions categorically or does it just prevent one particular (and incidentally the safest) method of abortion.
The answer seems to be the latter. You can still get an abortion you just can’t get a D and X. You have to get something more dangerous.
Nice law.
Less safe crap… the way I’m seeing it, if the abortion is needed for the mom’s life then they would be able to use c-section to get the baby since this is supposed to be against the severely late-term abortions… and if a woman doesn’t want a baby I think she’d know way before she hit the point of the baby being able to live outside the womb… and like someone already posted, it doesn’t apply to save-the-mother situations anyways… I really don’t see the big problem with the law myself.
Grem
The point is that it doesn’t stop elective abortions in the second trimester. it just prevents the safest method for performing them.
“Life of the mother” is neither here nor there.
It’s an emotional issue, to be sure, but a lot of folks want it banned just for its barbarity. You can’t legally deliver a baby all the way and then smash it’s brains out, so they “invented” a way to pull it only half way out and then suck the brains out, to keep it legal.
For me, it doesn’t make sense that:
Killing an unborn baby is legal.
Killing a delivered baby is illegal.
Killing someone else (even at their request) is illegal.
Killing yourself is illegal.
MFitz
Killing yourself is illegal.
True, but what are they gonna do? It’s not like they can arrest you at your um, funeral or something.
Save it for great debates. The OP asked a question with a factual answer: Does the so-called “partial-birth abortion” ban actually ban abortions or just the per se procedure. The answer is the latter.
The law only says you can’t do it this way (the safest way). It doesn’t say you can’t do it at all.
Nobody asked for your opinion on abortion in general. This is not a debate forum.
Aw, cut the Newbie some slack, eh, Diogenes? He just got here. 
Hi, MFitz, and welcome to the SDMB. Don’t let the pit bull scare you, he’s on a good sturdy chain. 
Anyway, as the Cynic was pointing out, General Questions is for questions that have a factual answer, and Great Debates is for–well, debates. Folks prefer that you leave the “debate” stuff out of GQ.
And, er, I might point out that MFitz wasn’t the first one to offer an “opinion” in this oh-so-factual “General Questions” thread. Now, let me see, who would that have been…?
Why, my goodness, Diogenes, you old scalawag!
At least my editorial comment was on topic.
Also, I didn’t look at MFitz’s post count. I would have been more polite if I had noticed I was talking to a newbie.
Sorry about that, MF. 
Thanks for the welcome all!
Well, obviously it’s an extremely sensitive topic, and I’ll try not to opine when avoidable, (though few things are truly clear-cut) but from an objective view, the question itself is clearly loaded with opinion.
MFitz
Ah, but you see, the “question” itself–which was posted in the expectation of a factual “yes or no”-type reply–was, “Will the partial birth abortion ban prevent one abortion? Or will it just limit the doctor from not using a dilation and evacuation procedure and forcing the doctor to use another (less safe?) abortion procedure?”
Granted, that’s kind of an “opinion” that’s being called for, but the important thing is, it’s not an opinion as to the rightness, appropriateness, desirability, or otherwise “niceness” of the law itself–just as to whether the law will actually prevent any abortions.
Opinions as to the rightness, appropriateness, desirability, or otherwise “niceness” of the law itself constitute a “debate”, and get put in GD.
And yes, this is a website full of fussy nitpickers, why do you ask?
Hahaha. Thanks. I needed that laugh.
MFitz
Is it? Statute cite?
In some places, attempting suicide may still be illegal. Dunno where MFitz is posting from.
Or maybe he’s just out of the loop…
http://www.suicideinfo.ca/csp/go.aspx?tabid=30
http://www.weblocator.com/attorney/mn/law/felonmisdem.html#90