Women do not continue a pregnancy for six months and then decide, for trivial reasons, to have an abortion. Virtually all late-term abortions are done to preserve the life or health of the woman or to abort a severely damaged fetus.
For example, a woman may learn late in her pregnancy that the fetus she is carrying is anencephalic, a condition incompatible with life because most of the brain is missing.
One woman might choose to continue her pregnancy for another three months even though she knows her baby will almost surely die within a few hours or days after birth; another woman might choose to have a late-term abortion to ease her own suffering and that of her family. Each decision is extremely difficult, each results in a tragic loss and each individual’s right to make it should be respected.
Those of us who are pro-choice agree that all abortions should be done in such a way as to minimize pain and suffering for both the fetus and the woman. We also feel it best that if abortions need to be done, they should be done early in a pregnancy, as almost all are. If later in a pregnancy circumstances change, however, the woman must have the right to choose what she thinks is best.
The recent focus by anti-abortion groups on late term abortions (only a tiny fraction are performed after 18 weeks) is an emotional “foot-in-the-door” strategy that is designed primarily to lead to legislation forbidding all abortions.
There are complex reasons why a woman chooses to continue to terminate a pregnancy. Most people would agree with some but not with others. How can any individual (or political group) insist he or she knows better what those conditions are than the woman herself?
