The Atlantic has published an article calling out the Democratic party for “brush[ing] off questions about whether [late] abortions should be restricted.” Author Emma Camp, an assistant editor at Reason magazine, claimed, “Preserving women’s right to choose does not require Democrats to adopt an extreme position that allows for abortion at any stage of pregnancy, no questions asked.”
Camp pointed out that “Democrats have considered abortion a winning issue and have been eager to talk about it” — except, of course, when it comes to “those that occur in the final months of pregnancy.” She noted, as pro-lifers have long stated, that they typically either “deny[] that their policies would allow abortions late in pregnancy” or “point[] out that the abortions are rare, implying that they are therefore not worth our moral concern.”
Camp notes two recent situations in which this desire to completely avoid the issue was made obvious.
It happened with Tim Walz in the vice-presidential debate when he brushed aside a question on the pro-abortion PRO Act that he signed into law in Minnesota. In the presidential debate, Kamala Harris could only say, “That’s not true,” when Donald Trump argued that Roe v. Wade allowed for abortion throughout pregnancy — which it did, thanks to a loophole in its partner decision, Doe v. Bolton.
The pervasive ‘late-term’ abortion myth
Usually, if discussed at all, the claim is made that women don’t choose late abortions lightly, and that something must have gone terribly wrong for them to seek it so late. This claim has been repeated so often that most people believe it to be fact.
It isn’t. It’s a complete myth.
Denying that late abortion exists or brushing it aside as “rare” is not helpful to the party, argued Camp, because late abortions do happen.
Camp noted what Live Action News reported in July — that there are plenty of facilities committing late abortions, and it’s legal up to birth in nine states plus D.C.
“… Colorado, which is home to clinics that perform third-trimester abortions, recorded 137 third-trimester abortions in 2023. That’s only one state—eight other states, plus Washington, D.C., have no restrictions on third-trimester abortions,” Camp wrote. “Just a few minutes from my office building in D.C., a clinic offers abortions up to nearly 32 weeks. In nearby Bethesda, Maryland, a clinic performs abortions up to 35 weeks’ gestation.”
The D.C. facility, noted Camp, commits abortion through 32 weeks for any reason. Data shows that fewer women have abortions in the third trimester than in the first or second, but that their reasoning is not very different from the women who have abortions earlier in pregnancy.
It is estimated that there are over 11,000 abortions committed every year at 21 weeks or later in the U.S. — which is the youngest gestational age when some preemies have been able to survive with medical assistance.
What most Americans want
Camp believes the reason Democrats are quick to dodge questions about late abortions is that most Americans want abortion restricted and are uncomfortable with abortions late in pregnancy. A recent McLaughlin Group for North Carolina Right to Life poll from August, polling 1,000 likely general election voters in the state, showed that if the question is properly phrased, a very strong majority of voters would allow abortion only in a very small minority of cases.
Respondents were asked if they would support or oppose allowing abortion only under these four circumstances:
1) when it is necessary to save the life of the mother
2) when there is a medical emergency posing a serious risk of substantial irreversible physical harm to the mother
3) in cases of rape
4) in cases of incest.
Seventy-one percent (71%) said they would support such a proposal – 51% strongly – while just 22% opposed it. Such legislation that allows abortion in only these four circumstances would eliminate about 95% of all abortions.
Despite a growing number of Americans identifying as “pro-choice,” a ReutersReuters/Ipsos poll from May 2024 found that 57% of respondents feel abortion should be “legal in all or most cases.” However, when asked about support or opposition to a national law allowing abortion through “viability” (defined by the poll as 24-28 weeks), just 27% of the original 57% who said abortion should be “legal in most cases” indicated support for a law allowing abortion up until 24 weeks, while 71% opposed it.
Additional research backs this up, as Camp explained, “… Americans are broadly uncomfortable with third-trimester abortions. A 2023 Gallup poll found that although more than two-thirds of Americans believe abortion should be legal in the first trimester, just 22 percent think it should be legal in the third. And a 2021 Associated Press poll found that just 8% of respondents believe that third-trimester abortions should be legal in all cases.”
Americans don’t support late abortion, which leads pro-abortion Democrats to want to avoid speaking about the fact that their goal is to have zero restrictions on abortion, just like Walz’s PRO Act.
Camp argued, “Democrats keep dancing around the fact that, under Roe, states were not required to restrict later abortions. Under Dobbs, which superseded Roe, they still aren’t; they can choose to ban the procedure or allow the abortions without limits.”
