âLate term abortions are so rare we do not even need to worry about them and they ONLY happen for life of the mother situations.â
Ok letâs fact-check that.
Firstly:
.065% of abortions are because a womanâs life is endangered, and .666 are because of a fetal abnormality
So 0.731% of abortions would even possibly be argued as justified in that sense, and the likely good that all of those were caught AFTER 21 weeks is low. Right?
So letâs address late terms being uncommon. Abortions at later gestational durations are comparatively uncommon: only 1.0% of abortions take place at or after 21âweeks after the first day of the pregnant person's last menstrual period
Yet, researchers estimate there were 1,026,700 abortions in 2023. "That's the highest number in over a decade, [and] the first time there have been over a million abortions provided in the U.S. formal health care system since 2012,"
1% of 1,026,700 is 10,276.
0.731% (which is what could be feasibly argued be be ânecessaryâ remember? And even that I would disagree in many of those cases,) is 7505.177.
Roughly 10,276 abortions a year are late term. Letâs put this into some context.
In the United States, there are approximately 4,000 unintentional drowning deaths each year, which is about 11 deaths per day.
In 2022, there were 3,790 civilian fire deaths in the United States.
In 2022, the FBI reported that there were 4,251 victims of murder who identified as female in the United States. A further 93 murder victims were of an unknown gender in that year.
Sooooo⌠your idea of âso rare it isnât worth discussingâ is more than twice the annual American deaths by drowning. More than twice the annual American deaths by fire, more than twice the number of American women murdered a year.
And even IF we decide that the 7,505 were 100% necessary and unavoidable (which I highly doubt) that still leaves 2,762 late term abortions that werenât. 8 viable babies a day.
Thatâs significantly higher than the body counts of any serial killer in history. 8 a day. Minimum.
This is an interesting statistical breakdown. The math is fine, but the way it is applied is interesting. The initial argument is regarding âlate term abortions,â abortions performed after 21 weeks. And then a set of statistics are given for the reported reason (Iâm assuming the reason given by the mother at the time of the abortion) behind their decision. Again, thatâs fine.
However, it appears the percentages are a breakdown of termination decisions throughout all stages of pregnancy, not just late term. Also, I canât find these specific numbers, and the ones I can find are quite a bit different.
These numbers are based on abortions done in Florida, as it is the only state that records a reason for every abortion done in the state. Also of note, âno reasonâ could mean any number of things, anywhere from the woman felt none of the options accurately portrayed their situation to they did not want to disclose a reason.
There are some other numbers as well just above these that reflect reasons from a study done in 2004 by the Guttmacher Institute where they surveyed 1,209 âpost-abortiveâ women. Of note, these numbers reflect only the reason the mother deemed most significant, however: â89% gave at least two and 72% gave at least three; the median number of reasons given was four, and some women gave as many as eight reasons out of a possible 13,â per the results section of the Guttmacher Instituteâs research paper on the survey.
My point being the numbers can vary greatly just based on population size alone, not to mention the method of how the numbers are collected. However my bigger point is that these numbers are not broken down by reason and gestational age, just the reason. So these numbers cannot directly be applied to late term abortions in the same way as it can be applied to abortions overall. Not to say that it doesnât, but thereâs no evidence that it does. However, I do find it interesting that, in the data I found at least, fetal anomalies account for 0.95% in the first data set and 3% in the second data set, and that is because of anatomy scans. Let me explain.
Anatomy scans are done at the 20 week mark (generally anywhere from 18 to 22 weeks gestation, depending on scheduling/availability). The reason the 20 week mark is used is because that is the point that all major structures are formed. This diagram from mothertobaby.org is a pretty good condensed illustration of the general development of major structures.
One major structure not mentioned here is the lungs; the outer structure of the lungs are formed by roughly 16 weeks, with the inner structures responsible for the gas exchange between oxygen and carbon dioxide considered mature around 36-38 weeks (though these structures continue to grow and mature well into the toddler years as the lungs grow with baby), which is why preterm and especially extremely preterm infants can require significant respiratory support to survive.
Because week 20 is generally when all major structures are formed, is it the earliest point that structural defects can be noticed. Any structural defects are markers for potential major fetal anomalies. These anomalies may be immediately identified as very concerning (examples being omphalocele, myelomeningocele aka spinal bifida, or even missing organs) or simply an area of concern that should be monitored just in case. The CDC has info here about how often different defects happen. I have extensive experience with a lot of these defects and would be happy to discuss any in detail if anyone is interested, but long story short, converting to percentages and adding them up comes to roughly 1.3% of pregnancies leading to some kind of congenital defect of varying severities and treatability (although defects in twin pregnancies are not included here, but Iâm not sure how selective reductions are figured into abortion statistics so we wonât worry about that today). With some of these defects it is most common to see it in conjunction with another if not multiple other defects, making treatment much more difficult.
All this to say, if a mother (or parents together) decide to abort a pregnancy due to a health problem in the fetus, that health problem is usually not discovered until the 20 week ultrasound/anatomy scan. If you then take into account medical discussions, deliberation time, and scheduling barriers, this would put those abortions after the 21 week mark. If 0.95% of abortions are done as a result of major fetal anomalies, most if not all of these decisions would have been the result of findings on the 20 week fetal anomaly scan. And if roughly 1% (or 0.9% per the data collected in 2021 as presented by the CDC) of abortions are âlate term,â meaning occurring after week 21, than it makes sense if most if not nearly all are done as a result of major fetal anomalies. So more than likely, nearly all if not all are done for major fetal anomalies and/or life of the mother.
I am not saying there are never exceptions. No one knows everything that happens in the world. But this is why if you say you are fact-checking, it is importantly to make sure the facts are used appropriately and accurately. Otherwise, thatâs how disinformation spreads. This is why we say late term abortions are loved and wanted children that are lost because of an impossible and difficult decision. They do not deserve to have salt rubbed in their wounds as they mourn a child they lost or couldnât care for the way they would have needed to be cared for.
