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Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

Who Has an Abortion After 20 Weeks?

Author:     DARSHAK SANGHAVI
Source:     Slate
Publication Date:     July 11, 2013, at 5:06 PM
 Link: Who Has an Abortion After 20 Weeks?
Stephan:   Over the past several weeks, as I have published story after story of the Theocratic Right's suppression of the rights of women, a number of women who are SR readers have written to tell me why it is important to understand that the tiny number of abortions that occur after 20 weeks are medically necessary, and why restricting access, as has now happened in a number of Red Value states, constitutes dreadful law. As one of these women wrote me, 'No woman has an abortion after 20 weeks for casual reasons. You are well and truly pregnant, and your body shows it. It is a heart-wrenching painfully difficult decision. In my case, at 20 weeks we learned our little girl could not survive birth except as a permanent patient, possibly even unable to speak, requiring constant medical care, and that my own life was at risk if I continued the pregnancy. As painful as it was my husband and I have never regretted our choice, and we have had two healthy children since that fateful day.' I was so moved by these emails, that I have been looking for a story that explains the issue well. This is the best I have found.

The Texas House of Representatives this week passed HB2, a bill to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. Many opponents of abortion may hope this means that all late mid-term fetuses in Texas would soon be carried to term and live healthy lives instead of being terminated. But lost was any discussion of why women might seek a late mid-term abortion in the first place-and the unintended, counterintuitive effects of a ban on such procedures, which might even increase the total number of abortions.

Abortions today are common. At current rates, it is estimated that roughly 1 in 3 women will have one by the time they reach 45 years of age-including in places like Texas. One important reason is that half of all pregnancies are unintended. The cause isn’t just unprotected sex; as I wrote last year in Slate, many forms of birth control are much less reliable than many women realize. For example, 5 percent of women on the pill still get pregnant each year.

Of the roughly 7 million American pregnancies each year, about 1 million end in abortion. However, almost all of the procedures are performed early in pregnancy. According to the Guttmacher Institute, only about 1 […]

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