When women have abortions (in weeks from the last menstrual period):
from guttmacher.org.
Eighty-nine percent of abortions occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, 2004.
Of the 1.1% that occur after the 20th week (18 week gestational age), 92% are to save the life of the mother -- or, more commonly, her reproductive ability in the face a non-viable pregnancy.
The overwhelming majority of cases where BAIPA would come into play is when a woman has an ectopic pregnancy. I think the very earliest a fetus is viable is 24 weeks, and it's basically torture for the child against long odds even at 24 weeks. An ectopic pregnancy usually begins to cause pain and is discovered before the 24th week. I can't imagine why someone would want to legislate this decision and take it away from women and their doctors. These aren't bad women who are irresponsible and cold. I had a close friend in this very situation, and even without having to make the decision of torturing a 21 week fetus to try in vain to keep it alive, when it couldn't have lived much longer before her tube ruptured and it died, she went through a personal hell. This decision came on the heels of a miscarriage, and years of trying for a baby. To think that in the hopes of undermining Roe the pro-life movement would needlessly make people in these situations suffer, leaves me with less respect for the movement.
Not to mention, I've seen the emotional toll it takes on people to be asked to torture these innocent babies for weeks rather than letting them go peacefully with as little suffering as possible.
If all the money poured into the late term pro-life aganda was going to fund research into a breathable fluid to bring 24-28 week pre-term babies through the crucial phase of lung development, we might actually see a few babies saved.
And if you want to prevent abortions, chew on this statistic:
The abortion rate among women living below the federal poverty level ($9,570 for a single woman with no children) is more than four times that of women above 300% of the poverty level (44 vs. 10 abortions per 1,000 women). This is partly because the rate of unintended pregnancies among poor women (below 100% of poverty) is nearly four times that of women above 200% of poverty* (112 vs. 29 per 1,000 women.
I've never understood how the people who want to take away the social safety net are usually often the first to call themselves pro-life.
