THE UGLY TRUTH

Exsanguination or draining of blood? A federal judge is demanding that abortion-industry witnesses speak in plain English as he considers one of three challenges to a federal law banning partial-birth abortions. But despite all the sensational testimony and courtroom drama, the major news media are paying no attention | Lynn Vincent

National Abortion Federation doctors are proving themselves an innovative lot. During testimony on April 6 in a New York courtroom, one abortionist told the presiding judge about a new method she uses to kill late-term babies during partial-birth abortions. Instead of decapitating the child or sucking out its brain with medical instruments like other late-term specialists, she pokes her finger up into the woman's uterus and uses it to crush the baby's skull.

That brand of gruesome testimony is entering the official record daily as a trio of separate trials targeting the Partial Birth Abortion (PBA) Ban Act of 2003 unfolds in three cities. After President Bush signed the law in November, the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and others filed suits challenging the measure. Now judges in New York, San Francisco, and Lincoln, Neb., are hearing evidence in juryless trials before deciding whether the ban violates the Constitution.