In a misleading and confusing article focused on existent, yet-somehow nonexistent late-term abortion, Teen Vogue writer Alex Berg tries to teach teenage girls that late-term abortion is not real — but also normal, acceptable, and even necessary. As she stumbles her way through her biased, non-scientific arguments, Berg contradicts herself and even manages to argue a pro-life point: that late-term abortions are mostly elective — committed on healthy women and healthy preborn children. The “health of the mother” exception is a lie.
Elaina (name-changed) told Berg that when she was 19 and in college, she learned she was pregnant and “so far along” that she had to have a surgical abortion that would take days to complete. Berg conveniently leaves out what type of abortion Elaina had, but links to a D&E abortion procedure that is committed between 13 and 24 weeks gestation. It’s clear that Berg skipped naming or describing the actual abortion because of how brutal it is. Berg also leaves out the fact that babies can survive outside the womb as early as 21 weeks.
READ: Parents, beware: Teen Vogue is pushing abortion on young girls… again
During a D&E, as explained by former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino in the video below, a preborn child is literally dismembered — her arms and legs ripped from her torso and her head crushed. She dies this way, and Berg claims there’s no proof she can feel it. But babies can be seen on ultrasounds moving away from the abortionist’s instruments, and studies show that not only can babies feel pain, possibly as early as eight weeks, but they can feel it more intensely than adults do. Plus, if preborn babies aren’t able to feel pain at this point in pregnancy, why do fetal surgeons ensure they receive anesthesia for pain control?
Elaina had a barbaric late-term abortion because, as she told Berg, “Ultimately I knew I just would have no financial stability, and I also knew, too, if I were to have a child I didn’t want, I would definitely drop out of college.”
Berg argues that these abortions, which can cost as much as $10,000, aren’t called “late-term,” but “later,” as if there is a difference. A “reproductive health” doctor informed Berg that “later” abortions don’t have a “strict timeline” attached to them, but that “it could” mean “anything in the second trimester, or be defined as an abortion occurring after 20 weeks’ gestation” — which means up until birth. Whether you want to call it “later” or “late-term” doesn’t matter much. It’s abortion committed on babies after the second trimester has begun, and the vast majority of Americans don’t agree with that; even 61 percent of people who consider themselves pro-choice want abortion restricted to the first trimester, according to the latest Marist poll.
Berg also confesses that these “later” abortions happen not because of a fetal diagnosis or the mother’s health, but because, like Elaina, the girl is “a young person who hasn’t learned to track her periods.” So, perhaps we should be teaching girls to track their periods, so they don’t have to have abortions. The reality is, most late-term abortions are committed for reasons other than that of health — sometimes financial reasons like Elaina’s.
“For Elaina, telling her story is important to show that individuals who’ve had later abortions exist, too, because she ‘felt so alone,'” wrote Berg.
And there it is, the pro-life argument that is always attacked by abortion advocates: “Later” abortions are committed on healthy women and viable babies. As Live Action News previously reported, study after study shows that the “overwhelming majority of women” have late-term abortions on healthy babies.
Meanwhile, Kate Grum, a 38-year-old mother who was told her baby had bilateral renal agenesis and had a zero percent chance of survival, told Berg that women don’t have abortions “because you carry for five to six months and decide ‘Meh, I changed my mind. I have $10,000 dollars to throw around, let me go in for that.’ That’s painful.” But that’s exactly what happened, and exactly what Elaina said she did.
It’s also unfortunate that Grum evidently did not have the opportunity to learn about amnioinfusion, which has been under research since the year 2000, at least. Grum’s abortion was in 2011. In 2014, U.S. Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler refused abortion for her preborn daughter with bilateral renal agenesis, or Potter’s Syndrome, the same condition as Grum’s baby. Beutler chose to fight for her baby and underwent amnioinfusion. Her baby was delivered prematurely, which is a risk of amnioinfusion, but little Abigail is thriving today.
READ: Hey, Teen Vogue, these 15 women say taking the abortion pill is nothing like having a period
Finally, Berg quotes Destiny Lopez, co-director of the group All* Above All, which ironically dedicates itself to ending the Hyde Amendment, thereby ensuring that the babies of “low-income” women are aborted with taxpayer money. Lopez says that pro-lifers will always “cry foul” no matter what stage an abortion takes place, “because their real agenda is to legislate [abortion] or litigate [abortion] out of existence.”
Yes, Ms. Lopez, yes. That’s exactly what pro-lifers want: for the intentional killing of innocent human beings to be outlawed, unthinkable, and extinct. No one is arguing that, Teen Vogue.
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