Recent state legislation aims to restrict or criminalize late-term abortions, claiming to protect life. However, the narrative by those advocating against abortion contrasts sharply with the experiences of women seeking these procedures. For two decades, a pioneering physician witnessed firsthand the traumas, urgent needs, and desperation of patients requiring third-trimester abortions. These circumstances are often tied to severe fetal conditions and personal crises, indicating an urgent need for safe, legal, and accessible abortion care throughout all trimesters, rather than a simplistic view of the issue as solely 'pro-life' versus 'pro-choice.'
For 20 years, I was the first woman doctor in the United States to openly provide abortions in the third trimester of pregnancy. My patients' stories of trauma, desperation, and resilience tell a very different story from the political rhetoric.
Though this procedure makes up a relatively small segment of abortion care, it is the key to understanding all abortion care. When we listen to those in the most desperate circumstances, we begin to understand everyone who seeks an abortion.
I have cared for patients who had nowhere else to turn. They needed care, often after exhausting every other option. Some received a devastating diagnosis late in pregnancy.
Patients whose babies have fetal indications are not the only patients who seek third-trimester abortions. I have also cared for victims of domestic violence who were trapped.
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