Third Term Abortions: It’s Time to Halt the Myth

Okay, so I originally had not much to say regarding the killing of OBGYN and abortion provider Dr. George Tiller of Wichita, Kansas, one of only a handful of third-term abortion providers in the entire country.

Well, now I do have something to say.

I decided on my own to do some research on third-term abortions. I mean, let’s face it. It does not sound like a nice procedure. In fact, when you don’t know anything about the whys and wherefores, it sounds downright evil. Who gets them and why?

You know what? The more research I do, the more pissed off I am about the murder of an innocent man who performed a distasteful, though perfectly legal medical procedure that has helped—yes, I said helped—thousands of women all over the country. A medical procedure that very few doctors have the guts to perform.

I am also totally pissed off that the U.S. media—save for NPR as far as I can tell—has stayed completely quiet about the true nature of third term abortions, thereby adding fuel to the fire of zealots who seem to think that they know God’s will, intent and punishment for those who feel they have no other option than to make this heart-wrenching choice.

First off, I did some research on abortion law. Many states have on the books a certain number of weeks past which a woman may not abort her pregnancy, unless her own life is in danger. And many states don’t list a specific week but simply use the term “viable” when describing the point at which a woman may not end her pregnancy, meaning that she can’t abort once the baby could live on its own outside the uterus.

Staunch anti-abortionists get their panties in a twist because the number of third-trimester abortions that take place in the U.S. turns out to be far more than the number of women whose lives are actually in danger from the pregnancy. Because you see, in Kansas and just a few other states, a woman who seeks a third-term abortion can get around the law by getting two doctors to agree that carrying her pregnancy to term would be too mentally upsetting.

Loud-mouthed anti-abortionists would have us all believe that there are legions of pregnant women in the U.S. (likely liberal women of course) who simply wake up one morning sometime between the 28th and 40th week of their pregnancies and decide that they don’t want to be pregnant after all. They’ve changed their minds. That this whole having a baby thing is just too difficult and too annoying and they’re going to get their perfectly healthy babies cut out of them and have them thrown into the incinerator. That somehow, inexplicably, these women manage to get two, count ’em two doctors—with medical degrees, no less—to agree that it’s okay for her to end her pregnancy, willy-nilly, la dee da, and then she can go back to shoe shopping with no worries. And Dr. George Tiller, they claim, was a monster making millions of dollars in this fucked-up medical atrocity.

It’s time for reasonable Americans to stand up and loudly proclaim BULLSHIT.

The truth is just as horrifying. The truth is that most third-term abortions that are not performed to save the mother are performed because the baby is not viable. That means that once the baby is no longer attached to his or her mother’s umbilical cord, he or she will cease to live, and no amount of medical intervention will save him or her.

Think of that. You’re a happy, healthy American woman planning your pregnancy. You and your significant other buy a crib. You’ve picked out names. Maybe you’ve learned the sex of the baby and you’ve bought a few adorable teeny-tiny outfits. People can see your belly getting bigger. Your parents are dreaming of becoming grandparents. Someone is planning your shower.

Then you go in for a late term sonogram and the tech becomes quiet. Something is wrong. The list of severe genetic deformities and life-crushing physical problems that can affect a baby is long: trisomy 18, DiGeorge syndrome, anencephaly, hydrocephalus, spina bifida, Potter's Syndrome, a Ruptured Amniotic Sac and more. Sure, science and technology are amazing, but the truth of the matter is, they’re not perfect. Sometimes not even modern medicine is able to detect a severe deformity until, according to law, it’s too late to abort the pregnancy.

But in your state, you’re told that you have no choice but to carry your pregnancy to term because the law simply forbids third-term abortions. That means that your belly will continue to grow bigger and bigger day after day. Strangers will smile at you and ask if you’re having a boy or a girl. Coworkers will ask to rub your stomach. All the while you know that when the day comes to deliver, you will give birth to your dead or dying baby and go home empty handed.

Please, if you think I’m at all stretching the truth, go to A Heartbreaking Choice to read the agonizing stories of women who felt they had no other option than to terminate their third-term pregnancies. Many of these women were anti-abortion themselves.

Would you be able to face that kind of mental anguish? Who is anyone to tell a woman that she must, by law, experience something so terrible? Some women feel that it's cruel to the baby to carry him or her to term and then watch his or her short life snuff out, possibly in horrible discomfort, outside the uterus.

Take these facts into consideration, and it becomes totally understandable how thousands and thousands of third-term abortions ended up being funneled to Dr. George Tiller’s clinic. Most U.S. women are forced to travel several states away to their third-term pregnancies aborted, even when their babies have zero chance at life.

Dr. Tiller was sometimes referred to as the “doctor of last resort”. The doctor who would perform a procedure that most doctors either couldn’t stomach, or more likely didn’t have the nerve to perform under threat of violent anti-abortionists. He continued his work even after being shot IN BOTH ARMS by an anti-abortion zealot in 1993. His clinic even offered funeral services to patients who wanted them.

I’m calling the American media out right here and now. It’s time for the CNNs and the MSNBCs and the New York Times and the Washington Posts and the USA Todays and the Newsweeks and Time Magazines of this country to report on this issue and report on it accurately. Otherwise, doctors like Dr. Tiller will continue to be at risk and American women may end up with very few choices when it comes to high-risk pregnancies.