General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Georgia Governor Approves Ban On Abortions After 20 Weeks With No Exception For Rape Or Incest [View all]yardwork
(61,608 posts)Sometimes it is not possible to save the life of the baby. For various medical reasons, the baby is dead or going to die, and the c-section or vaginal birth is not going to save the baby. Believe me, no medical practitioner wants to let a baby die! They will do everything they possibly can to save the life of the baby, but sometimes it is not enough. The question then becomes whether or not it is possible to save the life of the mother. The technical term for delivery of a dead fetus is "abortion." This term is used whether or not it is a natural abortion or induced. These so-called pro-life laws make induced abortions illegal, even if the life of the mother is at risk. There are horrific stories of women who barely survived - and stories by husbands whose wives did not survive - the insistence of a "pro-life" hospital that a woman not receive emergency medical care (even though the fetus was dead or would certainly die soon) because it would be considered an "abortion" to remove the fetus soon enough to save the mother's life.
This is what we are up against. NOBODY casually decides to have a late-term abortion. NO practitioner will provide one "on demand" or at the whim of the mother. Late-term "abortions" are invariably done in cases when the life of the mother is at risk, and making them illegal is essentially saying that women's lives are unimportant.