William Mudd Martin Haskell (born 1946) is an American
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
who, in 1992, described an
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
procedure known clinically as
intact dilation and extraction
Intact dilation and extraction (D&X, IDX, or intact D&E) is a surgical procedure that removes an intact fetus from the uterus. The procedure is used both after miscarriages and for abortions in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.
In U ...
(D&X), and popularly by the controversial, non-medical, non-technical term "
partial-birth abortion
Intact dilation and extraction (D&X, IDX, or intact D&E) is a surgical procedure that removes an intact fetus from the uterus. The procedure is used both after miscarriages and for abortions in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.
In U ...
".
Haskell was not the first physician to perform intact dilation and extraction. However, Haskell's 1992 presentation to the
National Abortion Federation The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is the professional association of abortion providers. NAF members include private and non-profit clinics, Planned Parenthood affiliates, women's health centers, physicians' offices, and hospitals who together ...
Risk Management Seminar in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
was the first detailed presentation of the technique.
Haskell's paper was obtained by the
anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respo ...
movement within weeks, and served as a catalyst for congressional hearings, federal legislation, multiple lawsuits, and more than thirty state bills prohibiting "partial-birth abortion".
''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'' reported that the director of the
National Right to Life Committee
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is the oldest and largest national anti-abortion organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide.
Since the 1980s, NRLC has influen ...
could "hardly believe his luck" when he received an anonymously delivered copy of Haskell's paper, given its potential as a
wedge issue
A wedge issue is a political or social issue, often of a controversial or divisive nature, which splits apart a demographic or population group. Wedge issues can be advertised or publicly aired in an attempt to strengthen the unity of a populatio ...
.
Chipping Away at Roe
by Debra Rosenberg. Published in ''Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'' on March 17, 2003. Accessed February 5, 2008. According to '' Harper's'', the furor was in no small part due to an article in ''Life Advocate'' magazine by abortion opponent Jenny Westberg, who independently ordered National Abortion Federation literature containing Haskell's paper, wrote an article and illustrated the procedure with a series of pen-and-ink drawings. The drawings, which were "gruesome but not gory", and "made D&X compelling to look at for the very reason Martin Haskell had wanted to tell his colleagues about it: the fetus was intact", would later be distributed in numerous anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respo ...
publications, brochures, and newspaper advertisements.
References
1946 births
Living people
American abortion providers
Physicians from Birmingham, Alabama
University of Alabama alumni
{{US-physician-stub