Why Women Need Abortions After 15 Weeks

[Celerity]

What Happens When It’s Too Late to Get an Abortion

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/opinion/abortion-supreme-court-women-law.html



On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. If the court decides to uphold the Mississippi law — as it may well do — that would mean American abortion rights would no longer be protected up to the point of fetal viability, or about 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Replacing this viability standard, which has been in place since 1992, with some lower threshold is sometimes framed as a necessary compromise between people who oppose abortion rights and those who support them. The suggestion is that Americans should relinquish the right to abortion in the second trimester to preserve access in the first, which is when about 90 percent of abortions take place.

But before the Supreme Court agrees to compromise the rights of tens of thousands of people, Americans need to understand what that would mean for their lives and those of their families.

I led a scientific study designed to answer that question. The Turnaway Study included almost 1,000 women who sought abortions from 30 facilities across the country, including many women who got abortions later in their pregnancies. It is easy to demonize these people. The assumption is that they were irresponsible or simply waited too long to make up their minds.

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