People are taking a second look at late term abortion
by digby
From Think Progress:
As the threat of homegrown Zika spreads, Americans are getting more realistic about abortion regulations.
A poll conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health and STAT last month found that while 61 percent of Americans oppose abortions after 24 weeks, a majority would actually support late-term abortions in the case of microcephaly — a condition in which a baby is born with a underdeveloped brain and skull. Microcephaly, found in infants whose mothers have been infected by Zika, is only detectable after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
I'm glad to see that most people have some common sense about this. But the stories of late term abortion are almost always painful stories of fetal anomalies. And thanks to the cynical anti-abortion movement, women and their families are forced to endure hellish, emotionally painful pregnancies and are forced into childbirth in these cases seemingly to punish the mother and consign the fetus to an often painful and cruel short existence.
They always skipped that part in the lurid discussions of late term abortion, many of which are necessary because you often cannot diagnose these extreme cases until well into the pregnancy.
It shouldn't take tragedies like Zika to open people's eyes.
Oh, and by the way, abortion after 24 weeks is illegal in 22 states and many are trying to lower it to 20 weeks which would make even more women have to carry these pregnancies to term:
And just this March, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (now Republican candidate for Vice President) signed a bill entirely blocking women from seeking an abortion “solely” because the fetus had a fetal abnormality — like microcephaly or Down syndrome.
“The data are clear that although people aren’t in favor of late-term abortion in general they are sympathetic to women when their pregnancies can be affected by Zika virus,” Gillian SteelFisher, deputy director of the Harvard Opinion Research program, told STAT.
This data adds to the growing number of studies that have found context to be crucial in correctly assessing a person’s stance on abortion. A 2013 poll commissioned by Planned Parenthood found that when given circumstantial details about a woman’s need for a late-term abortion, Americans are much more open to the idea.
The last thing the zealots want to do is give context. That humanizes a pregnant woman in a way that makes the issue more complicated than their propaganda that selfish witches are wantonly killing babies. That would ruin everything.
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