{"id":258022,"date":"2022-01-06T18:10:09","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=258022"},"modified":"2022-01-07T09:58:59","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T15:58:59","slug":"late-abortions-kill-tens-thousands-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/late-abortions-kill-tens-thousands-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Late abortions are not insignificant. They kill tens of thousands of children every year."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Over 100,000 unique human beings are killed in second and third trimester abortions each year \u2014 nearly 274 babies each day and at least 11 every hour. Are these babies who, as the media sometimes claims, are too sick to survive? Are these abortions done for dire reasons? The answer to both questions is no.<\/p>\n

Do women really get late-term abortions for the most dire of reasons?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The media leads the public to believe that late-term (sometimes referred to as “later” or “late”) abortions only happen in cases of fetal anomalies or because of a health reason (as opposed to an\u00a0early delivery<\/a>). But even the abortion industry admits that late-term abortions are often committed on perfectly healthy babies and moms, despite the persistent myth that women only seek late-term abortions in dire circumstances.<\/p>\n

Dr. Eleanor Drey, the\u00a0medical director<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Women\u2019s Options Center of San Francisco General Hospital<\/a>, which commits abortions into the second trimester,\u00a0admitted<\/a>\u00a0in an abortion training module published by Innovating Education, \u201d [\u2026]\u00a0there was a study that showed women\u2019s reasons for presenting at 16 weeks or beyond after their last menstrual period. And what they saw was that women often didn\u2019t realize that they were pregnant.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

She goes on to list additional reasons, and as you can see below, fetal anomaly<\/em> is the lowest on the list:<\/p>\n

\"Image:<\/p>\n

Eleanor Drey on reasons women obtain late second trimester abortion<\/p>\n

How many late-term abortions occur annually?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

For that answer, we turn to the two reporting agencies on abortion: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, a former \u201cspecial affiliate<\/a>\u201d\u00a0of Planned Parenthood.\u00a0 There is\u00a0no federal requirement<\/strong>\u00a0for abortions to be reported and no requirement to report abortions by gestation.<\/em> In addition, these two reporting agencies vary in their numbers.\u00a0Live Action News previously\u00a0explained<\/a>\u00a0some of the reasons for the variation:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The CDC\u2019s overall abortion numbers are generally much lower than numbers released by\u00a0the Guttmacher Institute. The CDC uses data from states, and since not every state requires abortion reporting \u2014 and those that do differ in what information is collected \u2014 abortions by trimester (gestation) will vary.<\/li>\n
  • Guttmacher\u00a0gathers its\u00a0figures from surveys, which it claims it\u00a0sends directly to all known abortion facilities, categorized by type. Despite more comprehensive figures, Guttmacher neglects to break down reported abortion data beyond 21 weeks of pregnancy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    CDC estimates tens of thousands of late-term abortions<\/strong><\/p>\n

    In 2019, the CDC recorded<\/a> a total of 629,898 abortions from 49 states, which voluntarily reported these numbers on April 9, 2021.\u00a0An estimated 6,300 babies were aborted at or past 21 weeks gestation in just 43 reporting areas,\u00a0according to the recently released CDC data. In addition, an estimated 39,000 abortions were committed between 14 and 20 weeks gestation. That means that over 45,000 babies were reported to have been aborted at 14 weeks and greater. Babies\u00a0have survived<\/a>\u00a0when born prematurely as early as 21 weeks gestation.<\/p>\n

    To calculate estimates on abortion by gestation,\u00a0Live Action News used the CDC\u2019s abortion percentages for the 43 reporting areas against the\u00a0total abortions reported in 2019 (629,898):<\/p>\n

      \n
    • 0-6 weeks (42.9%) \u2013 estimated 270,226<\/li>\n
    • 7-9 weeks (36.4%) \u2013 estimated 229,283<\/li>\n
    • 10-13 weeks (13.4%) \u2013 estimated 84,406<\/li>\n
    • 14-15 weeks (2.9%) \u2013 estimated 18,267<\/li>\n
    • 16-17 weeks (1.7%) \u2013 estimated 10,708<\/li>\n
    • 18-20 weeks (1.6%) \u2013 estimated 10,078<\/li>\n
    • 21 weeks or greater (1%) \u2013 estimated 6299<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      The data\u00a0excludes nine reporting areas known for committing later abortions (California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York State, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) that did not report, did not report by gestational age, or did not meet reporting standards.<\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/p>\n

      The data shows a decrease from what CDC recorded in\u00a02018<\/a>, when an estimated 49,000 abortions were committed at 14 weeks or later, with nearly 6,200 of those committed at or over 21 weeks \u2014 the point at which some\u00a0premature<\/a>\u00a0babies\u00a0have survived<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0assistance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      According to the CDC, between\u00a02018<\/a>\u00a0(77.7%) and\u00a02019<\/a>\u00a0(79.3%), the percentage of abortions committed at nine weeks gestation or less slightly increased while abortions at 13 weeks gestation or less remained relatively the same. Abortions 14-20 weeks dropped slightly from 6.9% in 2018 to 6.2% in 2019, while those recorded at 21 weeks or greater remained the same at 1%.<\/p>\n

      Guttmacher\u00a0estimates approximately 100,000 late-term abortions by gestation<\/strong><\/p>\n

      In\u00a02017<\/a>, Guttmacher reported a total of\u00a0862,320\u00a0abortions, claiming that two-thirds of abortions occurred at eight weeks or earlier. Using the same percentages from Guttmacher\u2019s graph below (2016), we discover that\u00a0over\u00a0100,000 (100,891) abortions took place in the second trimester or later<\/em>\u00a0with over 11,000 occurring at 21 weeks or greater.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • 8 weeks or less (65.4%) \u2013 563,957 abortions<\/li>\n
      • 9-10 weeks (14.7%) \u2013 126,761 abortions<\/li>\n
      • 11-12 weeks (8.2%) \u2013 70,710\u00a0abortions<\/li>\n
      • 13-15 weeks (6.3%) \u2013 54,326\u00a0abortions<\/li>\n
      • 16-20 weeks (4.1%) \u2013 35,355\u00a0abortions<\/li>\n
      • At or greater than 21 weeks (1.3%) \u2013 11,210\u00a0abortions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
        \"Image:

        Guttmacher 2016 abortion by trimester (Graph: Guttmacher Institute)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

        That 100,000 annual late-term abortion statistic is not small. It\u2019s equal to the\u2026<\/p>\n

          \n
        • Approximate number of\u00a0deaths<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Bosnian Genocide<\/a>\u00a0by 1995.<\/li>\n
        • Deaths following\u00a0Saddam Hussein\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0mustard gas and nerve agents attacks on\u00a0Iraqi Kurds<\/a>.<\/li>\n
        • More deaths than number of reported drug overdose deaths in\u00a02017<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S.<\/li>\n
        • Twice as many as reported\u00a0deaths<\/a>\u00a0from opioid drugs in 2017.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Abortions at or after 15 weeks<\/strong><\/p>\n

          In 2021,\u00a0the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization,\u00a0<\/em>a Mississippi case to determine whether the state can\u00a0prohibit<\/a>\u00a0\u201cpreviable\u201d abortions at 15 weeks or later.<\/p>\n

          Guttmacher\u00a0estimates<\/a>\u00a0that nationally, between 54,000 and 63,000 abortions take place annually at or after 15 weeks, and the vast majority are done by D&E, an abortion method that involves the direct dismemberment of a child in the womb.<\/p>\n