A Heartbreaking Choice: Kansas Stories

Too often in the debate on late-term abortion, people make the mistake of believing that women who seek late-term abortions are just procrastinators. “If you want to terminate a pregnancy, why wait 7 or 8 months?”

The truth is that fewer than 1% of abortions were considered “late-term” when it was legal (according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute). In the vast majority of cases, these were very wanted babies whose mothers wanted nothing more than to give birth. However, because of complications that threatened the mother’s life or prevented the baby from surviving outside the womb, giving birth wasn’t an option. Unfortunately, the late-term abortion ban has made it so that terminating the pregnancy is no longer an option either in many states.

Some anti-choice advocates recommend perinatal hospice for mothers of fetuses that are doomed to short lives of surgery and pain before certain death. There they can pray and say goodbye to the child who will not live beyond a few days.

I don’t disrespect the women who for religious or personal reasons cannot choose to end the pregnancy. Their right to choose is just as important as the rights of women for whom this isn’t an acceptable option — women who recognize their ability to protect their unborn children from unnecessary pain and suffering and avoid the dangers of attempting to give birth.

But it’s not always selfless. These women also want to avoid the devastating pain of carrying a doomed child to term, including weeks of false hope that maybe there’s a chance the baby will survive; smiling and thanking well wishers who notice their full-term bellies and ask when the baby is due or whether it’s a boy or a girl; wondering if they should decorate a nursery or hold a baby shower for a baby that will never leave the hospital; knowing that attempting to carry the baby to term could mean certain death for the mother as well.

To save their families from facing the loss of both mother and baby, these women travel thousands of miles and pay out of pocket for the life-saving procedures they need as insurance never covers abortion, even when it’s medically necessary. Dr. Tiller was one of the few doctors in the country who was willing to help these women.

The above link shares the stories of a few women who sought help in Kansas in their own words. We will never understand what a heartbreaking experience they endured to save their babies from unnecessary pain and suffering, but I respect them and the doctor who was willing to help them.

It’s important to remember that these are the faces of late-term abortion: women who desperately want their babies to survive. When they realize that isn’t possible, they must face the harsh reality of a country where the care they need is illegal.

(link via andrewsullivan)