by M. LeRoy Sprang and Mark G. Neerhof

About the authors: M. LeRoy Sprang and Mark G. Neerhof are physicians in Illinois.

The abortion issue remains in the public eye and the media headlines largely because of a single late-term abortion procedure referred to in the medical literature as intact dilation and extraction (D&X) and in the common vernacular as partial-birth abortion. This viewpoint reviews the medical and ethical aspects of this procedure and of late-term abortions in general.

Conflicting Information

Intact D&X came to the forefront of public awareness in 1995 during a congressional debate on a bill banning the procedure. During this debate, opponents of the ban asserted that the procedure was rarely performed (approximately 450–500 per year) and only used in extreme cases when a woman’s life was at...