It is really quite nervy to argue that a federal law ought to be overturned by the courts but decline to provide evidence to support the claim. The plaintiffs obviously know that the privacy claim is bogus. No names, addresses or any other identifying information will be attached to the medical records. It will simply state that Patient X was 20 years old, and was 23 weeks pregnant. Relevant aspects of her health profile will be included, like blood pressure, previous C-sections and other pieces of history. But unless the Department of Justice has at least those facts, it cannot possibly determine how to frame its response to this evidence.
It isn't really surprising that Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry are attempting to hide the facts. They've been doing so ever since the existence of the procedure became known. They first claimed that no such procedure existed. When that collapsed, they argued that the fetus was killed by the anesthesia administered to the mother. When anesthesiologists protested, they admitted that this wasn't true -- but that the procedure was so rarely performed it wasn't worth talking about. And when that lie was exposed, they urged that it was only done to save the life of the mother or in cases of severe fetal deformity. None of those statements was true.
Now they are saying partial-birth abortions are being performed to save the health of the mother. Let's see the proof.
Laymen may wonder why the procedure is done at all. Consult Dr. Martin Haskell's paper presented to a meeting of the National Abortion Federation in 1992. Haskell was the originator of the procedure. It was designed, he said, because it could be done in a doctor's office under local anesthesia, rather than in a hospital (and many hospitals do not permit second- or third-term abortions). Second, it was quicker (for the doctor) than dismemberment abortions, which sometimes took "45 minutes." Third, "most surgeons find dismemberment at 20 weeks and beyond to be difficult due to the toughness of fetal tissues at this stage of development."
We know they don't want to talk about what really happens in an abortion. But refusing to provide redacted medical records to the court is chutzpah on stilts.