Georgia Governor Approves Ban On Abortions After 20 Weeks With No Exception For Rape Or Incest

[lacrew]

26. 11 year old

You're right, I have been fixating on the 11 y/o argument, because an early poster made a riduculous example of a raped and pregnant 11 y/o...and accused the sponsors of the bill of being 'pro-rapists'.

My original response to this thread was that demagogue reactions like that are completely unproductive in the abortion discussion (even as I type 'discussion', the word 'debate' keeps coming into my head, because the issue has become so polarizing).

The 'no knowledge' comment has to do with the insinuation that this law would not allow an 11 y/o rape victim to have an abortion.

Not true.

It only applies after 20 weeks.

So, in order for this law to prevent an 11 y/o rape victim from getting an abortion, you would have to assume she was unaware of her pregnancy for 20 weeks...since there is an open time window from 0 to 20 weeks still available, even after passage of this law.

As far as 'no right to change her mind' goes....IMHO, it is not unreasonable to ask her to make up her mind before the 20 week mark, in light of the fact that we know a 22 week old baby can survive outside the womb. I would certainly not be in favor of her changing her mind at 39 weeks (and I hope you wouldn't be in favor of that either). And I would go lower: 38, 37....there has to be a middle ground. The state has a responsibility to protect both the mother, and (IMHO) a 39 week fetus...and the state has to figure out where to draw the line.

I'm ok with 20 weeks.