U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy once quoted abortionist Leroy Carhart in a dissenting opinion for the high court. Carhart was a party to the case and had given testimony regarding what happens during a D&E abortion procedure — the most common second trimester abortion done in the U.S. Justice Kennedy directly quoted Carhart and summarized other portions of the abortionist’s explanation, keeping it brief and pointed so the reader could understand what happens:
The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn from limb from limb. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off.
Dr. Carhart agreed that “[w]hen you pull out a piece of the fetus, let’s say, an arm or a leg and remove that, at the time just prior to removal of the portion of the fetus, … the fetus [is] alive.” Dr. Carhart has observed fetal heartbeat via ultrasound with “extensive parts of the fetus removed,” and testified that mere dismemberment of a limb does not always cause death because he knows of a physician who removed the arm of a fetus only to have the fetus go on to be born “as a living child with one arm.” … In Dr. Carhart’s words, the abortionist is left with “a tray full of pieces.”
Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist, explains D&E abortion with animated visual aids and actual abortion tools in the video below:
Dr. Levatino’s video has been viewed over 31 million times, on Facebook and YouTube. After seeing the video, many viewers react in this way:
Warning: Graphic image below
States continue to ban D&E abortion, which is also called dismemberment abortion — for good reason. However, in the vast majority of states, D&E abortion is allowed and remains the most common second trimester abortion procedure in the United States.