Martin Haskell

Who is Martin Haskell?

William Mudd Martin Haskell is an American physician who, in 1992, described an abortion procedure known clinically as intact dilation and extraction, and popularly by the controversial term partial-birth abortion.

Haskell was not the first physician to perform intact dilation and extraction. However, Haskell's 1992 presentation to the National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar in Dallas was the first detailed presentation of the technique.

Haskell's paper was obtained by the pro-life 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 reported that the director of the National Right to Life Committee could "hardly believe his luck" when he received an anonymously delivered copy of Haskell's paper, given its potential as a wedge issue.