We Need To Talk About Later Abortion

In the wake of the attacks on Planned Parenthood, many people have noticed that the reproductive rights movement is often in a reactive, rather than proactive position. A lot of time is spent defending rights that already exist, rather than making gains.

When the EACH Woman Act was introduced in July, it seemed that the tide was finally shifting. The bill would counteract the Hyde Amendment, finally ensuring that Medicaid recipients seeking an abortion would no longer have to pay out of pocket. It’ no secret that abortion access in America hinges upon people’s economic status.

Lack of access to funds or transportation to a clinic can delay an abortion procedure. This is the direct result of TRAP Laws aimed at shutting down clinics, bills requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, and mandatory waiting periods. The Right is benefitting majorly from these bills–they are attempting to cut off access to abortion slowly but surely, and creating roadblocks that ensure that even if someone can get the money together and find a way to the clinic, they’ll legally be too far along to seek abortion services. Additionally, they are capitalizing on the reproductive rights’ movement’s relative silence about later abortions.

In the media frenzy to cover the well concocted fake outrage campaign against Planned Parenthood, and conduct a larger assault on reproductive rights, many GOP talking heads pointed out that polls show that Americans, even those who identify as pro-choice are uncomfortable with late term abortion.e. A 2012 Gallup poll showed that only 14% of people surveyed believed that abortion should be legal in the last three months of pregnancy, and only 27% supported it being legal during the second three months of pregnancy.

The GOP has backed us into this corner in which they can exploit discomfort around later abortions, while simultaneously making it more difficult to access an abortion earlier in a pregnancy. We’re being roped into fruitless conversations about when life begins, when in reality, that’s going to be unique to each pregnancy. Terminating a much wanted pregnancy because it is life-threatening is going to feel different than terminating a pregnancy that resulted from an abusive relationship. When life begins is going to feel different to the parent in each of those scenarios, and that’s okay.

We need to talk about the fact that people have later abortions because they have to find a way to pay for them. We need to talk about the fact that some people don’t realize they’re pregnant until they’re five months along because they live in a state without comprehensive sex education. We need to engage people who identify as pro-choice in these conversations, and learn to sit with their discomfort. We need to unequivocally and vocally support people who have later abortions.

Unfortunately, the EACH Woman Act was introduced shortly before the smear campaign on Planned Parenthood. There hasn’t been much media coverage of the bill since GOP candidates entered a race to see erode reproductive rights. Supporting bills such as the EACH Women Act are a way we can be proactive in our movement. But, on a smaller and just as crucial level, engaging people in conversations about later abortion is another way to move the needle forward. Individual conversations have the power to change minds, and these conversations often highlight the many restrictions to abortion access. We need to start talking.