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Setting aside cases of rape/incest and health complications, should a woman be able to choose abortion after 20 weeks gestation?

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This January the U.S. Senate voted against the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would make abortions illegal after twenty weeks gestation. Both of New Hampshire’s U.S. Senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, voted against moving the bill forward.

Last year the New Hampshire House of Representatives tabled a similar bill, which would have banned abortions after twenty-one weeks. 

Both bills included exceptions for health complications and cases of rape and/or incest.

The debate is far from over. Similar bills are expected at the state and federal level in 2019.

Current state and federal laws on abortion

Since the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, federal courts have held that abortions are generally illegal after “viability” – the age at which a fetus can survive outside the womb. There are exceptions for health complications and cases of rape and/or incest.

However, neither federal courts nor Congress have drawn a clear line on the exact age when abortion becomes illegal.

In contrast, there are many state laws that limit abortion based on the exact age of the fetus. In particular, twenty-one states ban abortions at twenty weeks gestation.

Challenges to 20 week bans

Federal appeals courts struck down the twenty week abortion ban in Arizona and Idaho. Those federal appeals rulings don’t carry the same weight as a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, however, so other states’ bans are still in place.

Pro-choice advocates argue that human development is complex, and so the judgment of whether or not a fetus is viable should be left to each doctor and patient. They believe an arbitrary deadline of twenty weeks violates women’s rights to make very difficult health care decisions without government interference.

Opponents of a twenty week ban also point to the fact that the majority of babies born prematurely before twenty-four weeks die, even with significant medical help. A twenty week deadline therefore faces a constitutional challenge under the Roe v. Wade standard of viability.

Pro-life opposition to late-term abortions

On the other side of the issue, pro-life advocates argue that medical advances have pushed viability close to twenty weeks gestation.

In one notable case, a premature baby survived after just twenty-one weeks and four days gestation. 

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act also asserts:

“It is the purpose of the Congress to assert a compelling governmental interest in protecting the lives of unborn children from the stage at which substantial medical evidence indicates that they are capable of feeling pain.” 

What do you think? Setting aside cases of rape/incest and health complications, should a woman be able to choose abortion after 20 weeks gestation? Share your opinion in the comments below.

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