It may come as a surprise being the leftist I am but while I have always supported the basic right to choose, I don't get why so many people (at least half the democrat caucus) voted against the ban. Even moderates like Chet Edwards or Cal Dooley voted against it. While I agree in a basic right to choose, how could anyone not agree that the procedure is infanticide not to mention dangerous? A lot of democrats pushed for a "health" exception, but that's really a loophole to perform it whenever possible.
What Ebowed said. In 2000 they were only 0.17% of all abortions, and the alternative option for abortions at that stage of pregnancy are more dangerous to the mother (and arguably, more gruesome anyway). It's a meaningless wedge issue for people on both sides of the issue. Plus, given Supreme Court precedent at the time, it was quite possibly unconstitutional anyway. Also, I don't think you can call really it infanticide if the abortion occurs pre-viability.
First you need to define what partial birth abortion is, exactly.
18 USC § 1531:
(b) As used in this section—
(1) the term “partial-birth abortion” means an abortion in which the person performing the abortion—
(A) deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother, for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus; and
(B) performs the overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills the partially delivered living fetus
Before being banned, "partial birth abortions" were generally in the mid-to-late second trimester (20-26 weeks).
