Mango, I will tell you what goes into partial-birth abortion. This is an account I read from a former assistant nurse at a clinic. In the third trimester (6-9 months), when a baby is already completely viable (meaning that if it were born right then it would survive 95% of the time), the abortion doctor cannot simply vacuum out the fetus in pieces as is usually done because it is too large. Thus, the mother must be induced into labor and the baby partially born in order to perform the procedure. The doctor bursts the placenta or breaks the woman's water so that she begins to have contractions which push the baby about halfway out of her body head first. At this point the baby is opening and closing his fists and attempting to empty his lungs from fluid so that he can begin to breath air. Keep in mind that the baby's nervous system is already fully developed, and that the following procedure is just as painful for him as it would be for you or me. The doctor then inserts a sharp object into the base of the baby's skull and then uses another tool to pry it open enough for the insertion of a tube. The tube runs to a vacuum which then sucks the baby's brains out of his head leaving him dead. The baby is then delivered normally. Under NO circumstances is there any way that this procedure could EVER EVER EVER save the life of the mother because the delivery essentially takes place normally, only they kill the baby as it is born. That's it. Disgusting. I CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE that this is an issue. Regarding the poster who said that this procedure is extremely rare, that is untrue. The doctor in question has performed over 3,000 of these abortions. And for the person who said that it is less painful for the baby to have this done than to be born with a severe deformity only to die a few days later, think about that. Which would you prefer? I am against abortion in general (and the death penaly as well for that matter, so I am pro-life across the board) and the best arguement I can think of against abortion is this: Since no-one can ever possibly know when life truly begins (or when a fetus aquires a soul if you believe in God), then it is an awfully big gamble to take. I prefer to err on the side of caution myself, as I think any reasonable person should.