If you haven't noticed, Texas does things a little differently than other states. I referenced this in yesterday's humorous post. On a more serious note, Texas has also made the news recently with a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks. This bill was opposed by Texas Democrats, and notably, by a Texas Senator named Wendy Davis, who sparked a #StandWithWendy following on Twitter last night with her filibuster of the bill.
I know that people on both sides are very passionate about abortion, and that many people are very uncomfortable discussing the issue at all. It's not something dusty and dry like economic theory. We're not talking about tariffs and international trade. It's an intensely personal and moral issue that goes to the core of our being.
So, having said all that, I'm going to tee it up for discussion here, and if nothing else, put my thoughts out there on the Texas Bill and a 20 week rule. This is the internet - strong opinions come with the territory.
First of all, this is a tough world and people have to make tough choices at times, but what we are talking about here - an abortion after 20 weeks - is terminating a viable infant. I think there is a certain reasonable ground in which abortions can be performed, but that time is not very long. For instance, one of the big questions that are put to pro-life folks is What about the case of a woman who becomes pregnant through rape? Let's talk about that:
First, I'm fine with exceptions. I don't fall into either camp of: (a) abortions for all women, all the time, right up until the baby is born or (b) no abortions, ever. This issue isn't one that lends itself to either one of those solutions. So let's talk about a common exception that gets brought up: rape.
In the case of a woman who become pregnant through rape, I don't think that she is going to wait twenty weeks to make a decision about whether or not she wants an abortion. Why on earth would she wait that long? My guess is that she would make the decision as soon as she realized that she was pregnant, not four months later. No fact is going to change between week 4 and week 20. Basically, I think it's such an odd hypothetical as to not really merit much consideration. It's just a little too hypothetical and out of touch with reality for me. If you're raped, and get pregnant: have an abortion before week 20. Why?
For me, when I think of a 20 week old, I naturally think of what my child was like at 20 weeks. He had developed a head, lungs, all of his limbs, he had developed his sex, and distinct chambers of his heart. He was moving around. That's what you have at 20 weeks. It's not theoretical - it's a child. At 20 weeks, he was my child.
To me, the best evidence of how awful late-term abortion is the fog of language that we use to describe it. It's almost entirely euphemisms that minimize the act. To specifically and accurately describe what actually happens in a late term abortion is to condemn it.
Women have rights to control their body. But again, you can't take everything to the extreme. For instance, my rights end when I punch you in the face. I can't do that. With abortion, it's the same principle. People who advocate for late-term abortion are advocating destroying a viable human being. If your response to that is that you value the rights of a mother more than the rights of a late-term infant, my guess is that you're not a parent.
Anyway, I'm probably going to make some people mad with this post, but that's not my intention. I'm just putting my thoughts out there to get people thinking. By the way, random fact: the hard-right country of France has a 12 week window for abortions. So Texas is proposing to give women an addition 8 weeks longer than France does.
To answer your question about why someone would wait so long, it's because abortions are expensive, and rarely, if ever, covered/partially covered by insurance. And before anyone chooses to counter this point by saying that the woman just shouldn't have an abortion, think about this: If she can't scrape together the money for an abortion, how is she possibly going to be able to afford to raise a child?
ReplyDeleteAnd to throw my opinion on here....I really don't think the uproar over this bill was about the 20 week ban (even though the Supreme Court says that 24 weeks is the time at which a fetus becomes viable, so this would likely be blocked in the same way similar bills in Arizona, Georgia, and Idaho were). I think it was more to do with limiting access to abortion services in general. Section 2 of the bill talks about the requirements physicians face before performing an abortion, regardless of when it happens. As I understand it (and I could be wrong), the requirements to have admission privileges at a hospital not more than 30 miles from their clinic/practice, and the need for clinics to be run in the same manner as hospitals are potentially disastrous to women's reproductive health overall in Texas by shutting down clinics that don't meet those requirements. Doing that takes away options that Texas women have for their reproductive healthcare, which can't possibly be a good thing.
Personally, I do value the rights of the mother over that of an unborn fetus, regardless of its age. I'm definitely not a parent. But at what point does the life of the mother take a backseat to the life of a fetus? Why is that fetus more important than the living, breathing, hopefully contributing to society mother?
At the end of the day, deciding whether or not to have an abortion at any point during pregnancy is a very personal decision. But it is still a woman's choice (and no one else's, with the possible exception of input from the father), and bills like SB 5 are desperately trying to take that choice away.
First, thanks for jumping in Laura. I know it's a delicate subject. I hope that my tone doesn't come across as overly strident. (I know I can do that in other posts.)
DeleteI was working on a reply, because you raise some interesting points that I haven't really thought about. However it's started to get too long for a simple comment, so I'll do a new updated post. Hopefully, we can have a productive dialogue, and other folks who are on the fence can weigh in.