Dr Ron Fitzsimmons And Partial Birth Abortion

EDM number 600 in 1996-97, proposed by Elizabeth Peacock on 03/03/1997.

That this House notes the admission in the American Medical News by Dr Ron Fitzsimmons, President of the American National Coalition of Abortion Providers, that he lied 'through his teeth' when justifying the partial birth abortion technique to Congress; notes that the procedure involves making a cut in the base of the skull through which the brain is vacuumed out, thus collapsing the head and ensuring that the baby is born dead; draws attention to Dr Fitzsimmons' denial of his original claim that the technique was used only for women faced with death or in 'agonising situations' where the babies were hopelessly 'disabled' - arguments used by President Clinton when vetoing a Bill to outlaw such practices; notes further that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists issued a statement in January declaring that it could find no 'circumstances under which this procedure would be the only option to save the life of the mother or to preserve the health of the woman'; yet recalls that the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in Britain used exactly those arguments to justify their opposition to a Bill presented to Parliament by the honourable Member for Batley and Spen to outlaw this barbaric practice; and calls on Her Majesty's Government to introduce measures for greater protection of unborn children, including the banning of the partial birth abortion technique and giving the opportunity for a free vote of this House on the Bill.

This motion has been signed by a total of 23 MPs, 4 of these signatures have been withdrawn.