Illegal in the United States since 2003
Intact dilation and extraction
Intact dilation and extraction (intact D&E) is a surgical procedure that removes an intact fetus from the uterus. The procedure is used both after late-term miscarriages and in late-term abortions.
It is also known as intact dilation and evacuation, dilation and extraction (D&X, or DNX, disfavored term), and, in United States federal law, as partial-birth abortion. However, partial-birth abortion is not an accepted medical term, and is not used by abortion practitioners or the medical community at large.[1][2]
In 2000, although only 0.17% (2,232 of 1,313,000) of all abortions in the United States were performed using this procedure,[3] it developed into a focal point of the abortion debate. It was outlawed in most cases by the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which was upheld in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart.[