Later-Term Abortions, Caused by Anti-Abortion Policy & Morality(was Re: Gentrification)

[Max B. Sawicky]

Yoshie:
>> Look, Max, you don't really think that women who have later-term
abortions
do so because they consciously prefer later-term abortions to earlier
ones.
It is in the *rational interest of women* (in view of women's health,
how
much it costs to get an abortion, whether women can find a
conveniently
located abortion clinic, etc.) to have abortions early rather than
late.
And as a matter of fact, the majority of abortions occur early in
pregnancy.
>>

mbs: I've indicated the problematic area for me is less than a percent
of
abortions, though this is in the neighborhood of 10,000.

I take your point that legal/cultural/economic obstacles to abortion
could
encourage late-term abortions.  All the more reason to alleviate the
former
for the sake of reducing the latter.  I'm not against that at all.
If, for instance,
parental notification could be shown to have this result, that's a
great
argument against parental notification.  Unfortunately, it's not an
argument
the pro-choice side is well-situated to make, since it fails to
distinguish
between late- and non-late abortions and rejects any
restrictions of any type as an infringement on the rights of women.

Your quote from Petchesky makes assertions regarding the causes or
circumstances of later-term abortions, but it is not clear if she is
using
any empirical evidence.  I agree that such information is important.
I don't trust anybody's intuition of why teenagers or anyone else
postpone abortion decisions.


>>>
In other words, all these moral puzzlements and compromises with the
abortion-ambivalent (such as agreeing to the imposition of parental
notification) to which Max is given are the very causes for many a
later-term abortion that worries Max so much.
>>>

mbs:  I would agree that a lack of clarity about goals in this and
other
endeavors can give rise to unwelcome results.  In the pro-choice case,
absolutism could reinforce cultural victory but defeat 'on the ground'
in
terms of real access.  On the pro-life side, absolutism leads to
indiscriminate policy which can have the result you note -- more
late term abortions.

I don't know where to draw a sharp line between acceptable and
problematic terminations of pregnancy, nor exactly how best to
restrict the most troubling types of abortions.  All I can do is stand
on what seems incontrovertible to me:  a) birth is not a logically
impressive factor in granting someone a right to life; b) the closer
to birth, the more compelling the case for a right to life for the
fetus;
c) given these two points, "reproductive rights" cannot be the
exclusive province of the mother, nor of society as a whole,
over and against the interests of the unborn.

max