Doctors are lethally injecting babies before extracting them from the womb, a new study confirms.
That admission comes from the same industry that has always insisted late abortion is safe.
The research those doctors funded proved they never had a plan for this.
Abortionists Describe Injecting Babies Days Before the Third Trimester Begins
A study in the journal Contraception surveyed 18 abortion providers about procedures performed between 24 weeks and one day and 27 weeks and six days of pregnancy.
That is one day short of the third trimester.
Ten of the doctors said they prefer pulling the baby out in pieces.
Eight said they prefer keeping the baby intact, though that method can still require collapsing the skull.
Before either version begins, the doctors kill the baby first.
They inject the baby's heart or the surrounding fluid with lidocaine, digoxin, or potassium chloride, the same drug used in lethal injection executions.
Three-quarters of the doctors surveyed said they perform these procedures all the way to 27 weeks.
The mother is then sent to a hospital to deliver a baby who is already dead.
One Mother Walked Out of a 35-Week Abortion Before the Injection Happened
A woman named Rebecca was scheduled for exactly that kind of procedure at 35 weeks, at a clinic in Washington, D.C.
She was in active addiction to methamphetamine at the time and believed having the baby would trap her in that life for good.
The National Abortion Federation had already covered her travel and hotel with a 10,000 dollar grant.
When staff explained they were about to inject medication to stop her daughter's heartbeat, Rebecca asked for a moment to think.
She said the staff responded coldly, so she got up and walked out.
She called her mother, who called Jersey Shore Women's Center, a pregnancy center that sent someone to bring her home from the hotel that same day.
Rebecca gave birth to her daughter.
"I wanted an abortion because I thought having a baby would tie me to this life on drugs," Rebecca said.
"Having my daughter actually pulled me out of it."
She has since finished addiction treatment, reunited with her daughter, and graduated college with a psychology degree.
The Real Reasons Behind These Late-Term Abortions
The study confirms these late abortions happen for mostly the same reasons as early ones.
Financial hardship, relationship strain, and simply running out of time to decide topped the list.
In a separate presentation, one of the study's authors noted that "maternal health crisis or a diagnosis of fetal anomaly" made up only a small percentage of later cases.
That cuts against the story the abortion industry keeps telling the public about who these procedures are really for.
Many of the doctors also used the abortion pill mifepristone as part of the process, even though the FDA has only approved it for pregnancies up to 10 weeks.
Some administered fentanyl, midazolam, or ketamine for sedation during a procedure that can stretch across two or three days.
The Mifepristone Maker Helped Pay for This Study
The study was funded by Ibis Reproductive Health, a group that has previously taken money from Danco Laboratories, the company that makes the abortion pill.
The journal's editor, Blair Darney, is tied to the Guttmacher Institute, which used to be Planned Parenthood's in-house research arm, and its deputy editor, Alice Mark, is a former Planned Parenthood clinician.
One of the study's designers, Dr. Shannon Carr, previously worked for late-term abortionist Curtis Boyd.
Both Carr and Boyd were named in the wrongful death lawsuit of a woman named Keisha Atkins.
Even with all of that expertise in the room, the authors admitted something remarkable.
They wrote that there is a lack of clinical guidelines and limited published research on abortion care after 24 weeks.
A Malpractice Attorney Says This Looks Like Experimentation Without Consent
Mike Seibel, an attorney who represents abortion injury victims, told Live Action that skipping established guidelines is usually a deviation from any known standard of care.
"What the ambulatory clinics are doing without known established guidelines… amounts to experimentation on patients without their consent," Seibel said.
This is not the first time a late-abortion provider has faced that kind of scrutiny.
Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell ran his clinic for years with no real oversight before he was convicted of murdering babies born alive during late abortions.
Nobody is accusing these 18 doctors of what Gosnell did.
But the warning underneath both stories is the same one: when nobody is checking the work, women and babies are the ones who pay for it.
Cammack and Two Senators Are Moving to Ban Dismemberment Abortion Outright
Rep. Kat Cammack introduced the Dismemberment Abortion Ban Act of 2026 in April, making it a federal crime to use surgical instruments to pull a baby apart during an abortion.
"Under our current system, abortion procedures exist in a legal gray area with no federal standards and no accountability," Cammack said.
"Providers can perform inhumane extraction methods and face zero consequences," she said.
"That ends now," she added.
Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Rounds introduced a companion bill in the Senate on the fourth anniversary of the Dobbs decision.
Rounds said dismemberment abortions account for around 80 percent of all second-trimester abortions.
None of the 18 doctors in that study have had to answer for what they described, at least not yet.
Cammack's bill is aiming to change that.
Rebecca's daughter is walking proof of what is sitting inside the legal gray area Cammack wants to close.
Sources:
- Carole Novielli, "Dismemberment Abortions Happening Later in Pregnancy Despite 'Lack of Clinical Guidelines,'" Live Action, 2026.
- Maureen Paul et al., "Cervical Preparation and Induction of Fetal Demise Practices for Dilation and Evacuation Abortion Between 24- and 27-Weeks' Gestation," Contraception, October 2025.
- Office of Rep. Kat Cammack, "Rep. Cammack Leads Bill to Ban Barbaric Abortion Procedures," cammack.house.gov, April 2026.
- Office of Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, "Hyde-Smith, Rounds Introduce Bill Banning Barbaric Abortion Procedures," hydesmith.senate.gov, 2026.
- Fox News, "Doctor Kermit Gosnell Found Guilty of Murdering Infants in Late-Term Abortions," Fox News, 2013.
- House Judiciary Committee, "Chairman Goodlatte Statement on Kermit Gosnell Conviction One Year Ago," judiciary.house.gov, 2014.
- Pregnancy Help News, "Rebecca Walked Out of Her 35-Week Abortion and Found Help at a Pregnancy Center," pregnancyhelpnews.com, June 2026.
