Reactions to the partial-birth abortion bill signed by President George W. Bush last Tuesday have been widespread throughout the Penn State community as well as across the nation. While some have strong opinions about the procedure known as partial-birth abortion, many students do not wish to comment, often because of the lack of awareness of how the procedure is performed.

The definition of partial-birth abortion, taken directly from the Congressional Record, is:

"While maintaining this tension, lifting the cervix and applying traction to the shoulders with the fingers of the left hand, the surgeon takes a pair of blunt curved Metzenbaum scissors in the right hand. He carefully advances the tip, curved down, along the spine and under his middle finger until he feels it contact the base of the skull under the tip of his middle finger.

Reassessing proper placement of the closed scissors tip and safe elevation of the cervix, the surgeon then forces the scissors into the base of the skull or into the foramen magnum. Having safely entered the skull, he spreads the scissors to enlarge the opening.

The surgeon removes the scissors and introduces a suction catheter into this hole and evacuates the skull contents. With the catheter still in place, he applies traction to the fetus, removing it completely from the patient."

Ron Fitzsimmons is the executive director of the National Coaltition of Abortion Providers (NCAP), an organization that represents approximately 150 independent abortion providers that are non-Planned Parenthood clinics. He said partial-birth abortion is an uncommon procedure used between the 20th and 24th week of pregnancy.

"It's very, very rare," Fitzsimmons said. "It's maybe done about 2,000 times per year."

He said an abortion is usually a personal, private matter that may not necessarily relate to a woman's health status.

"Many times women will volunteer information, but they don't usually say why they're having [a partial-birth abortion]," he said. "It's very rare that women get it because their life is in danger because of the pregnancy."

There is a certain period of time in which a woman can have an abortion, Fitzsimmons said. "The Supreme Court said women can have abortions up to 24 weeks, so women could make an appointment, go to a clinic and a doctor would perform the abortion."

According to the Web site, roevwade.org, which is named after the controversial case, the court ruled in Roe v. Wade that a woman's right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment. The decision gave a woman the right to an abortion during the entirety of her pregnancy and defined different levels of state interest for regulating abortion in the second and third trimesters.

However, with the way the recently enacted partial-birth abortion law is written, Fitzsimmons said, the ban may include other types of procedures in addition to partial-birth.

"Well, [NCAP's] concern is that if the law is upheld, the language of it is thrust still rather vague," he said. "We think that the language could prevent other kinds of abortions performed in the second trimester--not just [partial-birth]. If you look at the language and the way we read it, it's possible it can apply to a D&E [dilation and evacuation], the more common procedure used 98 percent of the time. If the law is construed to prevent that procedure, then it would be very serious, affecting women after 15 or 16 weeks."

According to Planned Parenthood, D&E is a 10- to 20-minute procedure that is performed in two steps. In the first step, the vagina is washed with an antiseptic and absorbent dilators may be placed in the cervix. The dilators can remain in the cervix anywhere from several hours to overnight. Misoprotol, which makes the uterus cramp and induce abortion, may be used to help dilate the cervix.

The second step involves using a general anesthetic or injecting a local anesthetic into or near the cervix. Medication can also be administered to ease pain and/or prevent infection. The dilators are then removed from the cervix and the fetus and other products of conception are removed from the uterus with surgical instruments and suction curettage.

Brian Battaglia (junior-aerospace engineering), chairman of College Republicans, is not surprised at the way the ban is worded.

"I haven't read through the whole thing, but it wouldn't surprise me that it's ambiguous," he said. "I think the [Bush] administration wants to revisit Roe v. Wade. I can see it happening in the future."

Battaglia said he is in favor of the ban.

"I'm happy for it," he said. "I think it was long overdue. I think it wasn't passed in the past because people were angry about little things."

While members of College Republicans often have debates at their weekly meetings, Battaglia said the group has not met yet to discuss the ban. He believes, however, that a majority of the members agree with it.

"Normally, we tend to agree with everything the Republican Party agrees with," he said. "However, sometimes college students have different views on things. Not that I'm saying [College Republicans] are for abortion, but a lot [of college students] don't take a side in it."

Paula Nossek, office manager of Planned Parenthood, 253 Easterly Parkway, does not agree with the partial-birth abortion ban.

"I'm not for it," she said. "I believe it's a woman's right for choice and that's between her and her doctor."

Nossek believes it is important that women and doctors have the option of partial-birth abortion.

"Not everything's perfect in this world," she said. "Things happen. It's for medical reasons. If you could look into the crystal ball and wave the magic wand and know everything was going to be A-OK, then you can talk about it. If this was a perfect world, then sure, we could have a ban."

Austin Szatkowski (freshman-aerospace engineering) said he is in favor of abortion in certain situations.

"I'm for abortion if the mother's health was involved like if she is in risk of dying, or she was raped or sexually assaulted," he said. "But if you're getting [an abortion] just to get one, then I'm not for that."

Fitzsimmons said women need to have the option of abortion available to them.

"It's better medically and emotionally for a woman to get an abortion early on, but sometimes that's not possible," he said. "Possibly they couldn't get the money for it or it's possibly a minor that didn't know she was pregnant until 14 weeks or so. If D&E was prohibited, it would have a very serious impact on women."

"I would think that every woman that goes into any kind of medical care and her physician are always going to want to have the best options for her," he said. "We want to have the option to use that procedure. ... In some rare cases, our physicians believe that this procedure is necessary."

Helen Deitch, a gynecologist at Center Medical and Surgical Associates, 1850 East Park Ave., said the partial-birth abortion ban would not affect her.

"It's nothing that I have ever done or nothing I will ever do and I don't know anyone that would [perform it]," she said.

Hsiao-Wei Chen (graduate-teaching English as a second language) also opposes partial-birth abortion.

"I think [abortion] is a personal choice," she said. "I, personally, wouldn't agree with it because it involves life."

Deitch said the ban may even be the beginning of future legislation regarding abortion.

"If that procedure alone is banned, it just sets a precedent for legislature that will limit women's access to abortions," she said.

Battaglia thinks it is unlikely, however, that Roe v. Wade will be overturned entirely.

"I think there's a possibility, but I can't say it would happen," he said. "Maybe it would happen more now than in the past with more conservative judges, but I think it's going to take something big to do that. They're not going to re-examine a case because they feel like it."

There may be some sort of compromise, Szatkowski said, regarding abortion legislation.

"I think it's a give-and-take kind of thing," he said. "It depends on how the public feels. Some forms will get banned probably and other forms will be allowed."

Fitzsimmons said he, personally, is not in favor of the partial-birth abortion ban.

"It's an incredible waste of time and taxpayers' dollars and I say that because this is not going to be upheld," he said. "It's unconstitutional."