Steve King Anti-Abortion Argument Focuses On 'Dismemberment' (VIDEO)

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) took a new step Tuesday in his campaign to limit abortion access, asking a witness testifying at a House hearing on H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, to weigh in with her personal opinion following his graphic description of the process of "fetal dismemberment."

Here's how King explained the procedure:

"[T]he tool is used to dismember the baby, and pull the parts of the baby apart in utero dismemberment, and as they count the pieces up piece-by-piece, if it looks like you get down to the point where often the head is so well formed, and the bone is so well structured that it has to be crushed and then pulled out, collapsed, and then suctioned to make sure that the bone fragments don't bring about the high degree of hemorrhaging. And for me I can't see much different between partial birth abortion and dismemberment abortions."

King went on to ask witness Sara Rosenbaum, professor of health law and policy and chairman of the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University, if government should fund "a procedure like this?"

Rosenbaum questioned the merit of King's argument.

"I was focused on a bill that is dealing with what I don't consider to be government funding," she said. "As far as I can tell, there is no public funding for this procedure right now, except in those situations in which one of the three very limited categories has been satisfied under federal law. So my answer would be, we are not publicly funding these procedures now and the bill before us is not a public funding."

King didn't appear ready to drop his personal inquiry, however, first asking Rosenbaum if she had a "moral position" on "fetal dismemberment," then asking her if she would feel comfortable witnessing the procedure.

Rosenbaum said she would prefer to keep her own internal deliberations out of the discussion and maintained that she could find no evidence that there was public financing of the practice.

WATCH:

Comments

[toomanyLennys]

03:48 PM on 02/10/2011

A Woman's right to choose - what to do with their own body and her own life! Always!

[Aroon]

03:21 PM on 02/10/2011

Should government fund torture?

[Troy Person]

02:25 PM on 02/10/2011

Abortion vs Choices arguments are a lose vs lose, a suckers choice proposition. Either way it's a tradgedy. We are focusing on the result not the cause, namely Unwanted Pregnancies. What have other industrialized countries done to keep unwanted pregnancies rare? Which are doing the best job at it? Answer: Education and free access without parental knowledge to birth controle. Start focusing on funding these preventions and you'll see this problem diminish to a rare occurance. Instead we argue about what bandaid to put on the wound.

[wagymfan]

01:31 PM on 02/10/2011

Wow! The Republicans finally have a jobs program! Hiring more IRS agents to go through your medical records, and verify that your insurance would never provide any abortion services. Hmmmm, so if your current insurance covers abortion services, you lose the tax break, which makes this a "TAX INCREASE"!!! Otherwise, someone from the IRS will be telling you what insurance you have to buy or you have to pay the new Health Insurance penalty....Sounds like "GOVERNMENT TAKING OVER HEALTH CARE"!!!! So, I guess as long as it's Republicans that are doing it, it's ok.

[bobbythompson3333]

01:03 PM on 02/10/2011

the title of the article should be Pro-Life, not anti-abortion.

[rdrover]

02:03 PM on 02/10/2011

or better yet, "Look what Iowa sent to Washington!"

[Somebodys Coming]

02:38 PM on 02/10/2011

Why? He's not.

[larmarch5]

11:59 AM on 02/10/2011

He has been punished. He had to admit on National TV that he accepts that Barack Obama is a US citizen and a Christian (too bad that it matters what religion a person has or doesn't have). He tried to rationalize why Obama (by saying his name?) is the one who causes people to claim he is a Muslim, but finally had to actually back down on it. Lawrence O'Donnell then admonished him to at least have the spine John McCain did and inform his constituents that the President is an American Christian.  But, unless Obama becomes white with a white family, it won't matter to those "constituents".

[Batland]

12:46 PM on 02/10/2011

Shamefully true. Pitifully unchangeable constituents.
Perhaps America could spend time on the 4th of July thinking about what is an American.

[PublicusOrator]

01:24 PM on 02/10/2011

Off subject.

[nsgo123]

11:36 AM on 02/10/2011

How many abortions have Mr. King have to decide on? So against something he will never have to face. Puzzling!

[Al91206]

11:29 AM on 02/10/2011

For all the Republican's crowing about government interference I'm interested how they think the opinion of 435 mostly white, mostly elderly, non-MD men can better make a medical decision for a woman than an actual doctor? When they say things like "there is never a medical reason for a late-term abortion" - how on earth do they know? Is it because they delude themselves into thinking the Bible tells them so - or perhaps it's just their view that women should not be in charge of their own bodies?

[enlightenedgirl]

11:23 AM on 02/10/2011

A woman who terminates her pregnancy does it in the first 2 months, not in the third trimester.  If the fetus is this old, there has to be something wrong with it or the mother's health to terminate.  Steve King is wrong.

KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY BODY.  Where is my Liberty and Freedom?  Oh that's right, I'm a woman.

[Al91206]

11:35 AM on 02/10/2011

As usual - they use the worst-case scenarios to frighten their already frightened base of voters. What's frightening is that a section of the population actually voted for this man.

[enlightenedgirl]

11:17 AM on 02/10/2011

Lawrence O'Donnell wiped the floor with King last night.  This man is one of the worst when it comes to lying to it's constituents.   He can't even tell the truth about the President being born in the US.  How can you possibly believe anything that comes out of his mouth.

The Republicans have done nothing in the past 3 weeks but rehash the past, we need jobs for the future.

[Al91206]

11:09 AM on 02/10/2011

I'd like a description from a woman forced to deliver a pregnancy to term even at the expense of her own health, and life. The pro-birth (NOT pro-life) fanatics are determined to place a cell's life over that of a woman. Sad ....

[enlightenedgirl]

11:24 AM on 02/10/2011

fanned and faved.

[Batland]

04:59 PM on 02/10/2011

Exactly how will this be enforced? A pregnant women would be barred from travel? Maybe jailed till time of birth? WIC entitlements for being forced to deliver healthy baby? How will these women be tracked, monitored, especially if she doesn't have health care? Does she have to deliver in a pro birth home or a hospital, does she pay for the birth or the state?

[greenie 61]

11:08 AM on 02/10/2011

Now let's hear him narrate the graphic details of a r@pe or inc3st compounded with the fact that old white men force the v!ctim to have the resulting child against their wishes.

[larmarch5]

12:05 PM on 02/10/2011

Some nutty right-winger did that. wrote these gory pedophile books. Looked it up. Scooter Libby "The Apprentice"

[greenie 61]

01:53 PM on 02/10/2011

Oh, I remember that, I'm talking about him going into details about those types of incidents during a House hearing. Seems only fair we should get both sides of the story, but then again, fairness doesn't fall into the gop purview, doesn't fit their agenda.

[willandjansdad]

11:05 AM on 02/10/2011

Good answer after being baited by this grandstander.

[MountainPenelope]

10:43 AM on 02/10/2011

Prof. Rosenbaum is excellent. King was totally out classed and out gunned.

[lachihuahua]

11:31 AM on 02/10/2011

DITTO that! King is a serious piece of something. (nn)

[melinacohen]

06:03 PM on 02/24/2011

Agreed, though it doesn't take much to out-class King.

[Cynthia Dudley]

10:40 AM on 02/10/2011

Life is messy Rep. King- ever watched an open heart surgery while snacking on a Big Mac?

[jbh2009]

11:12 AM on 02/10/2011

Life? Uh oh, don't use tha word

[dmzrn]

02:03 PM on 02/10/2011

Open heart surgery is done under anesthesia for the purpose of saving a life. Big difference.

[Cynthia Dudley]

12:52 PM on 02/11/2011

You're medically dead- I thought the whole point was objecting to playing God.