Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Not by a long shot.

But the abortion issue has been torpedoed --

The Dems have nothing to fear from misrepresentations about abortions by the GOP because the facts are on their side. And the fundamental issue remains the one driving the women voters. Politicians deciding what is best, what is allowable, regardless of the health needs of the mother or the fetus, regardless of the negative impact on the woman's future ability to conceive and carry to term.

Throw in the irrational junk science based opposition to IVF and the absurdly counterproductive opposition to birth control, and you have a GOP election debacle for the ages. Forget the torpedo, the GOP is being depth charged because the sonar has been tweaked to detect stupid.

https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/abortions-later-in-pregnancy-in-a-post-dobbs-era/

Abortions Later in Pregnancy in a Post-Dobbs Era
Ivette Gomez, Alina Salganicoff, and Laurie Sobel
Published: Feb 21, 2024

Text and figures 1 and 5 were updated on July 23, 2024 to reflect policy updates in Maryland & Michigan.

Key Takeaways

Abortions at or after 21 weeks are uncommon and represent 1% of all abortions in the U.S. The procedures are expensive and often require travel and lost wages. They normally require treatment over multiple days and are only performed by a subset of all abortion providers.

Claims of abortions occurring “moments before birth” or even “after birth” are false. These scenarios do not occur, nor are they legal in the United States.

Reasons individuals seek abortions later in pregnancy include medical concerns such as fetal anomalies or maternal life endangerment, as well as barriers to care that cause delays in obtaining an abortion.

Fourteen states currently ban abortion and 11 have gestational bans that restrict abortion at a certain point in pregnancy. An additional 16 states ban abortion at or near “viability”, the point where a fetus can survive outside the womb.

Access to abortions later in pregnancy has always been limited; there are few providers that offer the services and the costs are often prohibitive. Changes in the landscape of abortion access in the U.S. post-Dobbs has led to an increase in out of state travel for abortion services as well as an increase in delays. It is still unknown whether this has led to an increase in the share of abortions that are performed later in pregnancy.