Partial-birth abortion: women and babies deserve better than this torture

Australia has its own partial birth expert, Dr David Grundmann. He performs it in a number of clinics on Australia's east coast and has established a clinic in Melbourne.

Dr Scissorhands has said he's "personally happy to do terminations at 26, 28, 30 weeks". He's even willing to do them for sex selection. Justice McHugh noted that the Queensland Court of Appeal indicated that he "in effect, is a criminal".

At an abortion providers’ conference in Melbourne a few years ago I asked an abortion clinic nurse whether the clinic informed women of the precise nature of the procedure beforehand. The answer was no.

This lack of respect for a woman's right to know is typical of the abortion industry. What happens to her when she does find out? And what sort of response is it to say the best we can offer you is to bring your baby to the threshold of birth and stab him or her in the head with scissors? Is this all we can offer women in difficult situations?

A woman is hardly exercising her "right to choose" when she feels driven to undergo this sort of brutality. Such procedures are an indication of the lack of choices available to women - unendurable pressure which makes them feel they can do nothing other than allow the baby they have felt kicking for many weeks to be killed. Show her you care: say it with scissors. Surely women and babies deserve better than this torture?