Congress certainly has the legal right to restrict this type of abortion, even under the Roe V. Wade decision, but President Clinton stands squarely in the way. In fact, H.R. 1122 allows partial-birth abortion to save a mother's life. Even the leading authority on late-term abortion in the United States says that the procedure is never necessary to preserve a woman's health. So, adding any health exception would effectively negate the ban. It may be necessary to preserve a woman's future fertility.
Medical experts say it does the opposite.
Forcefully dilating a woman's cervix for three days and turning a baby in utero to a breech position can make it more difficult to carry a subsequent baby to term. The anesthesia given to the mother kills the unborn baby. Leading anesthesiologists in the United States testified before Congress that this is simply not true. Practitioners report that the vast majority of these abortions are elective and that some are done to prevent the live birth of a child with handicaps. Tennessee Right to Life.