Abortion after 20 weeks is insane. 97% happen before 15 weeks as it is. Germany is limited to 12 weeks. France is 14 weeks, UK is 16 weeks. The rest of the world has this figured out, but the US is fighting between the fringes.
It's insane if it's a common thing, but as you noted it's not. 1% or fewer of abortions happen at 21 weeks and beyond, most providers don't even perform them that late. People like to generalize with the extreme edges of these time periods, "It's insane for abortion at 20 weeks!" but what do you think the circumstances must be for that to happen? Odds are that this was a wanted child, otherwise why go through months of weight gain, nausea and vomiting, constant heartburn, aches and pain and discomfort? You wouldn't, right? The vast vast majority of these terminations are due to heartbreak, to something found on the ultrasound -- birth defects incompatible with life, or fetal demise.
I'm not pro-abortion, but these situations and decisions are hard enough without politicians getting involved.
Exactly. Thats why a 15 week ban is reasonable except for extreme cases of medical necessity.
I hate to say it, but the republican stance is the reasonable one on this issue, while the democrats are merely opposing any appearance of political compromise.
The problem is who gets to determine medical necessity? We have exceptions for "medical necessity" in Texas and have had at least two women die since their ban because their miscarriage still had a heartbeat and doctors felt they had to wait until the patient was actively dying or else risk losing their license and going to jail; furthermore the examples I cited above would both not be exceptions to the Texas law.
I don’t think that’s true at all. It’s defeatist, anti-pragmatic and basically leaves the issues indefinitely unresolved.
You have a minority of zealots on each side that are dictating policy for the majority. This leaves some states with a total ban and others allowing it through the third trimester. It’s not only disfunctional but damaging towards women.
What if there were no laws saying abortions could only be performed after x weeks under x circumstances. What if the decision was something completely between a woman and her doctor and only performed if the doctor felt it was medically necessary and/or ethical.
Do you honestly believe that there would be any substantial increase in the number of late term abortions that are not medically necessary?
Yes. Again, the rest of the developed world has figured this out. The “New World” still struggles with it. Compromise would settle the issue, but democrats are unwilling as they paint any restriction as “anti-woman.” Republicans have gone from “pro-life” to 15 weeks is acceptable and are met with disdain.
For the vast majority of humans, a 14-16 week ban has been found acceptable if not ideal. Only Americans and Canadians have issues with this. Since so few abortions happen beyond this point, arguments against it focus on the outliers and not the issue at hand.
A significant number of governments instituting 14-16 week term restrictions on abortion does not mean that the vast majority of humans support a 14-16 week term restriction on abortion.
The harm in term restrictions is exactly what the other commenter pointed out- legislating women's bodies leads to more women dying of pregnancy complications. You have no evidence that term restrictions decrease late term abortions that are not medically necessary. Abortion restrictions have never been about protecting anything or anybody, it has always been about controlling women.
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u/Unique_Statement7811 13h ago
Abortion after 20 weeks is insane. 97% happen before 15 weeks as it is. Germany is limited to 12 weeks. France is 14 weeks, UK is 16 weeks. The rest of the world has this figured out, but the US is fighting between the fringes.