The Countess

Your family story may be completely sincere, but it does not establish the claims you just attached to it. First, “after 21 weeks” is not the same thing as “third trimester,” much less “up to birth.” CDC reports 1.1% of abortions at 21+ weeks. ACOG defines the third trimester as beginning at 28 weeks and says fewer than 1% of abortions occur then. Second, it is simply false that all third-trimester abortions are cases where “something went horribly wrong.” Serious maternal or fetal diagnoses are one pathway, but published U.S. research has also documented abortions after 24 weeks because the pregnancy was discovered late or because barriers such as cost and difficulty finding a provider delayed an abortion that was already wanted. Third, what exactly happened to your mother matters enormously. If the sister you're talking about was the baby from that pregnancy and she survived, then you appear to be calling a medically indicated delivery an “abortion.” Those are not automatically the same thing. If you mean a different pregnancy, then we still need to know what procedure was performed and why before claiming that restricting third-trimester abortion would have killed your mother. An anecdote cannot do the work of a medical record, and “my mom almost died” does not turn every abortion after 28 weeks into emergency lifesaving care. CDC: cdc.gov/reproductive-health/… ACOG trimester definitions: acog.org/womens-health/faqs/… Research on reasons for abortions after 24 weeks: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3540…