Aug 24, 2023, 7:06 PM ET

After GOP debate, pro-abortion crowd diminishes thousands of yearly deaths by late abortion

Last night, GOP presidential candidates participated in their first debate, and abortion was one of the topics that was discussed at length. While each of the candidates reiterated their stances on abortion, they also pointed the finger at pro-abortion politicians, condemning policies that allow abortions to take place up until birth.

A series of so-called fact checks and retorts quickly followed, prompting the question: what really is the truth about late, or “late-term” abortions, or abortions until birth?

Are late-term abortions rare?

Journalist Katie Couric began by tweeting about the supposed rarity of late-term abortions. “Worth noting that fewer than 1% of abortions occur in the third trimester,” she wrote.

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Scott Klusendorf, president of the Life Training Institute, responded on Facebook. “Parents murdering their own infants is a relatively rare occurrence in comparison to all other homicides that occur annually, but that doesn’t tell us anything about the wrongness of the actions,” he said, adding, “Pro-life advocates ought to challenge critics to explain their views instead of letting them get away with dismissals like this one. Doing so requires asking pointed, direct questions to expose the thinking that lies underneath.”

Meanwhile, how frequent are late-term abortions, exactly?

According to the CDC’s annual abortion surveillance report, 0.9% of abortions in 2020 — the most recent year available — were committed after 21 weeks, a gestational age at which children are capable of surviving outside the womb. Another 5.8% were committed between 14 weeks and 20 weeks.

A total of 620,327 abortions were reported to the CDC, although California, Maryland, and New Hampshire did not provide data — meaning the total number of abortions was certainly much higher. Of that number, 0.9% equals 5,582 abortions committed after 21 weeks in just 2020 alone; of abortions between 14 and 20 weeks, 5.8% would equal 35,978 abortions. Together, that is over 40,000 abortions past the first trimester.

While 40,000 is a much smaller number than 620,327, it’s still a significant number of preborn children, thousands of whom could survive outside of the womb, who were instead killed through abortion.

If 40,000 (or even 5,582) people died from a terrorist attack, it’s unlikely that ‘this is a small percentage of the population’ would be the first statement from the pro-abortion crowd. Yet when it comes to abortion, because these humans were killed in the name of “choice,” the death toll is downplayed, even mocked as insignificant.

The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion organization and former research arm of Planned Parenthood, issued a report last year; they collect their data directly from abortionists, and said 930,160 abortions were committed in 2020. Though the Guttmacher Institute did not give a breakdown of abortions by gestational age, using the CDC’s percentages, that would mean an estimated 53,949 were committed between 14 and 20 weeks, and an estimated 8,371 committed after 21 weeks.

Using these numbers, this means over 62,000 preborn children were estimated to have been killed in the second and third trimesters in just one year: 2020.

(Now imagine these thousands of deaths for each year abortion was legal in the United States under Roe.)

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Do pro-abortion politicians support abortion until birth?

Numerous people hit back at the notion of politicians who support no limits on abortion. At the Washington Post, their fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, gave a non-answer in his reply, saying:

The implication is that late-term abortions are common — and that they are routinely accepted by Democrats.

The reality, according to federal and state data, is that abortions past the point of viability are extremely rare. When they do happen, they often involve painful, emotional and even moral decisions.

His statement didn’t respond at all to the notion of politicians supporting abortions through birth.

Al Franken, a former comedian and senator, likewise tweeted that “no one is trying to allow abortions right up to birth.” Jen Psaki, the former White House Press Secretary, tweeted that this is a position “no one supports.”

The only problem is that pro-abortion politicians have largely taken that exact position in recent years. Any limitations on abortion are roundly criticized and struck down, as recent controversy surrounding Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. demonstrates.

Furthermore, pro-abortion politicians have frequently made abortion with no limits part of their platforms, as one video posted on X (previously known as Twitter) showed:

One of the more controversial statements included in the video came from Ralph Northam, the governor of Virginia at the time. He was expressing his support for the Repeal Act, which would have legalized abortion until birth.

“When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of, obviously, the mother with the consent of the physicians – more than one physician, by the way – and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s nonviable,” he said. “So in this particular example, if the mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physician and the mother.”

Pro-abortion politicians have also repeatedly pushed for passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), an extreme piece of legislation that would allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, overturning pro-life state laws; it was because of that stance specifically that it was described as “destined to fail.”

Individual states, however, like Maine, Minnesota, California, New Mexico, Vermont, and more have all passed laws allowing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Supporting abortion until birth is not a popular position to take; it’s likely why so many abortion advocates rushed to falsely claim no one supports it.

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