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How Many Late Term Abortions and
Abortionists Are There? Part Three of Three Editor's note. This is excerpted from an NRLC analysis entitled, "Carhart Move Demonstrates Need for Protective Legislation" In an interview with Colorado abortionist Warren Hern published online November 5, 2010, TIME Magazine perpetuated the prevalent myth that there are few, if any abortionists who perform abortions late in pregnancy. The Washington Post's Rob Stein also furthered the myth in a November 10 piece saying that Carhart "is one of the few in the country to perform abortions late in pregnancy." The truth is, abortions in the fifth month of pregnancy and later are widely available. A 2008 study, "Abortion in the United States: Incidence and Access to Services, 2005," released by the Guttmacher Institute (which was originally founded as a special research affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America) found that, in 2005, there were at least 1,787 abortion providers in the United States. (It is worth noting that submission for the Guttmacher study is voluntary. As a result, Guttmacher projects estimates for non-responders meaning that the figures cited are estimated calculations and therefore most likely represent minimum numbers and calculations.) Of the 1,787 providers, the study found that "[t]wenty percent of providers offered abortions after 20 weeks [LMP--Last Menstrual Period], and only 8% at 24 weeks [LMP]…" This translates to at least 300 abortion providers who will perform abortions after 20 weeks LMP, of whom 140 are willing to perform abortions at 24 weeks LMP. Assuming that the 8% of abortion providers willing to perform abortions at 24 weeks LMP would do so at 22 weeks LMP means that there are at least 140 abortion providers willing to abort a pain-capable unborn children at 22 weeks LMP (20 weeks postfertilization). "That more than 140 abortion providers are willing to kill unborn children who are capable of feeling the excruciating pain of abortion is a tragedy – a tragedy that we can easily stop in the state legislatures," NRLC Director of State Legislation Mary Spaulding Balch commented. It is also misleading to conclude that
the abortions which Hern, Carhart and their ilk are performing are "rare."
According to a May 2010 briefing by the Guttmacher Institute, 1.5% of the
estimated more than 1.2 million elective abortions performed annually in the
United States are on unborn children at 21 weeks LMP (19 weeks
postfertilization) or older. This translates to roughly 18,000 abortions
annually – a substantial number of which probably occur at 22 weeks LMP or
later, which is past the point that the best evidence indicates that the
unborn child is fully capable of feeling pain (a point that may well occur
earlier). These findings are generally corroborated by the Centers for Disease Control Abortion Surveillance Report for 2006 (released November 27, 2009). In the 43 reporting areas for 2006 which reported gestational age to the CDC for its report, at least 1.3%, of abortions were performed at 21 weeks or later. (Three states – California, Louisiana and New Hampshire – did not submit any data for 2006. Six states – Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Nebraska – either did not report gestational age or gestational age was reported as unknown for more than 15% of women.) Part One
-- NRLC's State Legislative
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