Reply #132: Here are the facts. [View All]

The first fact to be acknowledged is that NOBODY -- not the AMA, not the CDC, not Alan Guttmacher, NOBODY -- keeps a log showing the reasons for all abortions performed. Also, what are we calling "late term"? Can we agree that second trimester is not "late term" but "middle term"?

That being said, the numbers do tell a story.

THIRD TRIMESTER abortions really are very rare. The last time I looked it up, it was estimated that only about a thousand THIRD TRIMESTER abortions, or abortions after 25 weeks gestation, are performed in the U.S. every year.

In the 1950s and 1960s, before the use of ultrasound techniques for monitoring fetal development, the prevalence rates for anencephaly ranged from 1.39 to 1.93 per 1,000 births. So there are a lot more anencephaic infants conceived than are infants aborted in the third trimester. This tells us some anencephalic infants are abortion at MIDDLE TERM, and some women choose to bring the infants to term so their organs can be harvested. To each her own.

Further, anencephaly is just one of many desvastating medical conditions that give no hope of a good outcome. And, surely more than a thousand infants die in utero in the U.S. from all kinds of causes and must be removed to prevent sepsis in the mother. Those, also, count as "abortions."

Most states DO ban elective abortion in the third trimester, believe it or not. This is permitted by Roe v. Wade as long as exceptions are made for life/health of the mother.

The point is, women are NOT trotting into abortion clinics in their eighth month of pregnancy and getting abortions for the hell of it.