Late Term #Abortion #Politics On #DebateNight

A few thoughts on a Presidential Debate topic by Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News, with candidates Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R) from the third, and final debate held last night at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Wednesday, 19 October 2016:

1.) Tweet from Dr. Jen Gunter, MD: “There is no such thing as a ninth month abortion – I’m a doctor who trained in late term abortions”
https://twitter.com/DrJenGunter/status/788912646330257408

2.) A portion of her blog entry (linked herein) on the topic from the Debate states: “Trump’s statement, as incorrect as it may be, supports the fallacy of the due-date abortion. It is a common anti-choice narrative that women come in at 39 weeks and have some kind of abortion for fun or out of boredom and that we doctors are only to happy to comply. I’m sure some people think there are Groupons. The more graphic the description of the procedure the better as it helps to distract from the facts.

“Talking about abortion from a medical perspective is challenging when you are not a health care provider. Even someone familiar with the laws can get confused. For example, Mrs. Clinton made an error speaking about late-term abortion when she said it was a health of the mother issue. Typically it is not (it’s almost always fetal anomalies). However, this error on Clinton’s part only underscores how important it is for politicians to not practice medicine.

“To put it in perspective 1.3% of abortions happen at or after 21 weeks and 80% are for birth defects. Put another way 1% of abortions that are at or after 21 weeks and are for birth defects and 0.3% of abortions are at or after 21 weeks and are not for birth defects (some of these will be health of the mother and a very few will be for other indications). Let’s take it situation by situation.”
https://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/donald-trump-confuses-birth-with-abortion-and-no-there-are-no-ninth-month-abortions/

3.) The United States Supreme Court has ruled in Roe v Wade that it is a Constitutional Right for a woman to independently decide what she ought to do with her body in regard to non-viable, or defective pregnancy. Such a decision should NEVER be made by any government, ever. For if it ever is, at that point, our bodies will have then become the property of the state – and we will have become slaves, with no freedom to make any independent decision.

4.) A Right means that the FREEDOM to make a decision in a matter is legally given to individuals to make certain decisions for themselves. Rights mean that a person may, or may not, exercise them. One may not like the decision that others make, but one’s Right to exercise the FREEDOM to do, or not do, a thing is a founding American principle. I’m Catholic, but I don’t begrudge Protestants, Buddhists, Eastern Orthodox, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, or Latter Day Saints for their FREEDOM to choose their religion. Nor do I begrudge Atheists their FREEDOM to not practice religion.

5.) Research continues to show, and has most recently shown in Colorado, that when Female adolescents use Birth Control, Unintended Pregnancy, and Abortion rates drop.
“Colorado’s teen birth rate has been cut nearly in half during the first five years of the Colorado Family Planning Initiative. According to new data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, both the birth rate and abortion rate for women ages 15-19 fell 48 percent from 2009 through 2014.”
https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/news/teenbirthrate

6.) “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
-Jesus Christ, as recorded in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 7