Feminism Is For Everyone

Oct 16, 2008,5:32 PM

late term ("partial birth") abortions

This article represents the issue of late term abortions in a way that I had never considered. I'm pretty pro-choice but I definitely struggle with how late you can go into a pregnancy and still get an abortion. This article provided very disturbing insight on the implications of banning late term abortions through an arbitrary definition of partial birth. It showcases a woman's personal account of choosing to abort a baby with severe birth defects, who would not have enjoyed any quality of life.

Writes Gretchen Voss, "At the heart of the debate [over late term abortions] is a term that legislators concocted. They created a nonexistent procedure -- partial-birth abortion -- and then banned it. They then gave it such a purposely vague definition that, according to abortion providers as well as the Supreme Court, which ruled a similar law in Nebraska unconstitutional, it could apply to all abortions after the first trimester."

Her baby's health issues were not discovered by ultrasound until she was well into her second trimester.