I’m trying to work out how I feel about this.
Every so often, republicans in the US will accuse democrats & leftists of being “pro-abortion up to the point of birth”. Sometimes they go even further and make stuff up about “post-birth abortions” (I think Trump said something about that at one point).
I always hate it when they say stuff like that because it just feels so mendacious… but honestly, I have trouble refuting it because it does seem like a fair amount of liberals & leftists are opposed to any gestational limit. (Look at the comments in this Reddit thread to get an idea of what I mean). Their reasoning seems to be that even though a qualified restriction on late-in-the-pregnancy abortions might seem like an appropriate rule to have, it’s impossible to write such a law perfectly so that it would still allow abortions to be performed in every appropriate case. There would always end up being a few cases where a woman who really ought to be allowed to get an abortion would be encumbered from getting one.
I understand that argument, but… idk, I guess I just can’t shake the feeling that such a law can still be implemented in a good way, and should be. The UK, the Netherlands, and Pennsylvania all have gestational limits on abortion of 24 weeks, with cases of fetal impairment, risk to the life/health of the mother, and pregnancies that resulted from r*pe excluded from the limit (as is common). I do not see the UK, the Netherlands, and Pennsylvania as particularly oppressive places for reproductive rights. As far as I know, the medical consensus is that 24 weeks is both the point when fetuses become developed enough to survive outside the womb, and also when they become developed enough to experience pain, so I do think there’s some moral consideration to be given to that.
So what’s the right answer here?
It’s basically a moot issue; a red herring or well poisoning or whatever. 90%+ of abortions happen in the first trimester.
Women elect to abort after 7 months gestation when it is literally a case of life-or-death for the mother, or complications arise that would prevent the child from having a decent quality of life. It is less than 1%, may as well be a statistical anomaly. Nobody is fetus-maxxing and nobody is “ripping the baby out, and killing it”.
Taken from the Centers for Disease Control Govt. Website
Nearly all abortions in 2021 took place early in gestation: 93.5% of abortions were performed at ≤13 weeks’ gestation; a smaller number of abortions (5.7%) were performed at 14–20 weeks’ gestation, and even fewer (0.9%) were performed at ≥21 weeks’ gestation.
I feel like people forget that doctors perform abortions. Doctors are people and have to make these sorts of ethical calls as part of their job description. I doubt you’d be able to find a doctor willing to abort a viable fetus where it is not a case of life-or-death for the mother or something else wrong with the pregnancy.
You should never bargain from a position of weakness. The Republicans want extreme gestational limits. So the democrats say “no gestational limits” because they don’t want to legitimize their opponent’s position.
If you walk into the room saying “just a few commonsense limits” you get bargained down to extreme limits. If you start with “no limits” then you get bargained down to “just a few common sense limits.”
now this seems like a fun thing to bicker over. Why don’t you make a post here on hexbear titled “What is the right stance to have regarding common sense gun laws?” and see what happens
I don’t think anything should be labeled as common sense. The language assumes that if you agree, your opinion is the same as everyone else and must be correct. If you disagree with something labeled as common sense, you’re obviously a dumb dumb and don’t deserve to exist.
how long do you think it’s ok to force a woman to continue being pregnant?
I guess my thought is that at some point they should be allowed to get an induced early birth, but not an abortion.
Maybe that’s how it is already. Or maybe I’m making a distinction without a difference. Idk, I’m willing to be corrected on this.
There’s cases where in the third trimester you find out the baby isn’t viable, so instead of going through the trauma of giving birth to a dead / dying baby, you could elect to get an abortion.
As for aborting a viable fetus at that point, I don’t think you’ll find any cases of anyone waiting that long before deciding to get an abortion.
I guess my thought is that at some point they should be allowed to get an induced early birth, but not an abortion.
a c-section is a kind of abortion.
also remember that the alternative here is risking the death or disfiguring of the parent, or infanticide. You can’t stop desperation, you can only make it deadly.
