{"id":48450,"date":"2014-04-11T14:53:12","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T18:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=48450"},"modified":"2014-04-11T14:58:15","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T18:58:15","slug":"most-late-term-abortions-are-not-done-for-medical-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/most-late-term-abortions-are-not-done-for-medical-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Most late-term abortions are not done for medical reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

\"20-weeks-human-fetus3\"In a house editorial about an Arizona law that restricts abortions after 18 weeks, the editors of theNew York Times<\/em>\u00a0assert<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe overwhelming number of abortions occur well before 20 weeks; later abortions mostly often involve severely troubled pregnancies that pose risks to a woman\u2019s health or life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This allegation that abortions after 20 weeks are mostly performed for medical reasons has long been discredited by the public disclosures of abortion providers. The salient facts are documented in Just Facts\u2019 research on\u00a0partial-birth abortion<\/a>\u00a0and are summarized below.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Before being banned in 2003, the partial-birth procedure was a preferred method for performing abortions after 20 weeks (see picture on right at this stage of pregnancy). This procedure gained prominence in the early 1990s through Dr. Martin Haskell, who is credited with inventing it. In a 1993 interview with\u00a0American Medical News<\/em>, Haskell said:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be quite frank: most of my abortions are elective in that 20-24 week range\u2026. In my particular case, probably 20% are for genetic reasons. And the other 80% are purely elective\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After this statement was published in a U.S. Congressional report, proponents of legalized abortion adamantly contested it:<\/p>\n

\u2022 The American Civil Liberties Union, National Organization for Women, People For the American Way, and 50 other organizations sent a joint letter to Congress stating that partial-birth abortions were \u201cmost often performed\u201d in cases \u201cof severe fetal anomalies or a medical condition that threatens the pregnant woman\u2019s life or health.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Planned Parenthood issued a press release asserting that partial-birth abortions are performed \u201conly in cases when the woman\u2019s life is in danger or in cases of extreme fetal abnormality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers appeared on ABC\u2019sNightline<\/em>\u00a0and stated that partial-birth abortions were done only in extreme situations of danger to a woman\u2019s life and fetal anomalies.<\/p>\n

Within the next year and half, the claims above were bluntly discredited by abortion providers:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ronald Fitzsimmons, the executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, told the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0American Medical News\u00a0<\/em>that he \u201clied through [his] teeth\u201d when he appeared on\u00a0Nightline<\/em>\u00a0because he was afraid that the truth would erode public support for abortion. Disowning his previous statements, he stated that partial-birth abortions are \u201cprimarily done on healthy women and healthy fetuses\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Two doctors at a New Jersey abortion clinic spoke with a North Jersey newspaper under condition of anonymity. Both independently stated that their clinic was performing roughly 1,500 partial-birth abortions per year, most of which are elective and not for medical reasons.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Renee Chelian, president of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers confessed:<\/p>\n

The spin out of Washington was that it was only done for medical necessity, even though we knew it wasn\u2019t so. I kept waiting for [the National Abortion Federation] to clarify it and they never did. I got caught up: What do we do about this secret? Who do we tell and what happens when we tell? But frankly, no one was asking me, so I didn\u2019t have to worry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Guttmacher Institute is a research organization that operates under \u201cguiding principles\u201d that include support for legalized abortion. In 2004, the institute conducted a\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0of women who had abortions. The survey did not isolate abortions that were performed after 20 weeks, but it is otherwise instructive: When women having abortions were asked what their primary reason was, 4% said it was because of their personal health, 3% said it was because of possible problems affecting the health of their unborn child, and less than 1% said it was because of rape or incest.<\/p>\n

Without credible evidence that would overturn these candid admissions of abortion providers, there is no factual basis to claim that most abortions performed after 20 weeks are for medical reasons.<\/p>\n

Although partial-birth abortions are now prohibited except if \u201cnecessary to save the life of a mother,\u201d late-term abortions are still performed for elective reasons by another method called \u201cdismemberment dilation and extraction.\u201d During this procedure, as explained in the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>, \u201cthe fetal limbs are pulled off the body in utero, sometimes while the fetus is still alive.\u201d A 2007 Supreme Court ruling details this procedure in greater depth (WARNING:\u00a0graphic content<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The article originally\u00a0appeared\u00a0at JustFacts<\/a> and is reprinted with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a house editorial about an Arizona law that restricts abortions after 18 weeks, the editors of theNew York Times\u00a0assert\u00a0that \u201cthe overwhelming number of abortions occur well before 20 weeks; later abortions mostly often involve severely troubled pregnancies that pose risks to a woman\u2019s health or life.\u201d This allegation that abortions after 20 weeks are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":12370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nMost late-term abortions are not done for medical reasons - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/most-late-term-abortions-are-not-done-for-medical-reasons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Most late-term abortions are not done for medical reasons - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a house editorial about an Arizona law that restricts abortions after 18 weeks, the editors of theNew York Times\u00a0assert\u00a0that \u201cthe overwhelming number of abortions occur well before 20 weeks; later abortions mostly often involve severely troubled pregnancies that pose risks to a woman\u2019s health or life.\u201d This allegation that abortions after 20 weeks are […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/most-late-term-abortions-are-not-done-for-medical-reasons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-11T18:53:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-11T18:58:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/20-weeks-human-fetus.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1202\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James D. 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