Yep, I was skimming the numbers and got it wrong, but 1 percent of the number isn't insignificant to the terminated lives. The real point is that few of those are being done to save the live or health of the mother or because the baby is unhealthy. Also since the number is relatively small, why do the Democrats always vote against banning those abortions?
It might be important then, to understand why people are waiting so long to have abortions.
Why do people have abortions later in pregnancy?
Non-Medical Reasons: Individuals seek abortions later in pregnancy for a
number of reasons. As part of the
Turnaway study out of the University of California San Francisco, from 2008-2010 over
440 women were asked about why they experienced delays in obtaining abortion care, if any (
Figure 2). Almost half of individuals who obtained an abortion after 20 weeks did not suspect they were pregnant until later in pregnancy, and other barriers to care included lack of information about where to access an abortion, transportation difficulties, lack of insurance coverage and inability to pay for the procedure. This is unsurprising, given abortions can be cost-prohibitive for many; in
a study from 2011-2012, the median cost of a surgical abortion at 10 weeks was $495, jumping to $1,350 at 20 weeks (range $750-$5,000) excluding the cost of travel and lost wages. Yet the
Federal Reserve Board found 40% of U.S. adults do not have enough in savings to pay for a $400 emergency expense, meaning many individuals may need to delay having an abortion until they can raise the necessary funds.
Figure 2: Many Factors Contribute to Delays in Obtaining Abortion Care
Additionally, of all the
abortion-providing facilities in the U.S., only 34% offer abortions at 20 weeks and just 16% at 24 weeks, meaning individuals may need to travel a significant distance to find an available, trained provider. Abortions at this stage also typically require two days to complete with inpatient care, as opposed to outpatient or at-home management that is possible earlier in pregnancy.
1 In the years since these data were collected, dozens of
abortion restrictions have been
enacted across the county, including mandated
waiting periods; it is therefore possible that individuals seeking abortion today may face even more delays in care than these data reflect.
------
I don't disagree with your take on abortion and where it should be. I think 21-23 weeks is a reasonable number with exceptions related to health of mother and baby.
The reasons for late term (after 21 weeks, which represent 1% of all abortions) seem to be based on some factors outside the mother's control. I would expect very few find out they are pregnant at 10 weeks and then wait for weeks to get it done.
This study verifies that point:
Abstract Objective: We studied the steps in the process of obtaining abortions and women’s reported delays in order to help understand difficulties in accessing abortion services.
Methods: In 2004, a structured survey was completed by 1209 abortion patients at 11 large providers, and in-depth interviews were conducted with 38 women at four sites.
Results:
The median time from the last menstrual period to suspecting pregnancy was 33 days; the median time from suspecting pregnancy to confirming the pregnancy was 4 days; the median time from confirming the pregnancy to deciding to have an abortion was 0 day; the median time from deciding to have an abortion to first attempting to obtain abortion services was 2 days; and the median time from first attempting to obtain abortion services to obtaining the abortion was 7 days. Minors took a week longer to suspect pregnancy than adults did. Fifty-eight percent of women reported that they would have liked to have had the abortion earlier. The most common reasons for delay were that it took a long time to make arrangements (59%), to decide (39%) and to find out about the pregnancy (36%). Poor women were about twice as likely to be delayed by difficulties in making arrangements.
Conclusions: Financial limitations and lack of knowledge about pregnancy may make it more difficult for some women to obtain early abortion
This is a complex issue with dozens of extenuating factors that require careful thought and deliberation. Unfortunately the state of the US at the moment doesn't allow for this because compromise is weakness and weakness must be weeded out.
Also, compared to the rest of the western world, the US has the highest abortion rate by far, the reason why might merit more studying, but people on both sides might not like what they find, because the solutions will be uncomfortable for them.
worldpopulationreview.com
