In the United States, around 1% of abortions occur after 21 weeks. Yet these abortions are intensely vilified. Recall Donald Trump’s graphic and false claim that US laws allowed doctors to “rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day”.
For two decades, Dr Shelley Sella provided abortion care in the US into the third trimester of pregnancy: that is, after 26 weeks gestation. Her new book Beyond Limits offers an intimate account of health care and politics, written from the front lines of America’s abortion wars.
In Australia, abortion after 20 weeks gestation is also statistically rare – and most Australians agree that people need abortions after 20 weeks for a variety of medical and social reasons. However, in the last year or so, the focus on later abortions seems to be intensifying here, along with misinformation.
Every Australian jurisdiction but the ACT has a legal gestation limit (ranging from 16 to 24 weeks), after which two doctors must agree the abortion is necessary.
Yet a common claim made by abortion opponents like Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce is that Australia’s laws allow abortion “for any reason” “right up to the time of birth”.
Sella’s book is part memoir, part activism – and at its core is the fundamental belief that empathy and understanding can overcome stigma and stereotype.
Mary and Christopher, Jamie and Robert, and Amrita and Arun are “fetal indication” patients, terminating wanted pregnancies after serious fetal anomaly diagnoses, such as lissencephaly (also known as smooth brain), a rare but severe congenital condition.
Mary and Christopher’s story is particularly striking. Catholics who oppose abortion, they chose to terminate their pregnancy because “as long or as short as their child’s life might be, they did not want their child to suffer”.
Laura, Irene, and Noor are “maternal indication” patients, accessing abortion because of their life circumstances.
Laura, a mother of four, was experiencing extreme domestic violence and had cancelled several earlier abortion appointments. Irene is a single mother whose pregnancy symptoms were masked by the return of her stomach cancer. She couldn’t begin chemotherapy while pregnant and was terrified she would die before her daughter finished high school.
Noor, the 17-year-old daughter of Iranian immigrants, was unable to access abortion care because of state parental consent laws for minors. She believed her parents would disown her for having sex before marriage, yet when they eventually learned she was pregnant they supported her desire for an abortion.
As Australian anti-abortion politicians and activists increase their vilification of later gestation abortion and the people who access this care, we would do well to heed Sella’s message of compassion and empathy and resist the politicisation of healthcare.
Source: A doctor’s story shows ‘late-term’ abortion access is politically charged – but crucial
Thank you for posting this. Extremely important and the book well-worth reading – obviously. It is vital to be on top of the issues here, as a general practice and in light of forces ranged and ranging further against women’s rights generally and vis-a-vis bodily and psychic autonomy.