Please tell me of some reasons as to why a woman would need an abortion at 20 weeks?

Question

I keep seeing all of these people writing things like 'No vagina, no say' type thing. And that it all leads to this 20 week abortion ban.

As a woman I find it very difficult to imagine any situation where you might need an abortion at 20 weeks other than ie. you have been kidnapped, raped and held hostage and released at 20 weeks, you have been raped and then slipped into a coma and the foetus survived, you wake up at 20 weeks. You find out at 19 weeks that your child is going to be born blind,deaf, with no arms or legs and various diseases or tumors or something.

These are all extreme scenarios though are they not? what other kind of instances might somebody need an abortion at 20weeks?

Answer 1

The mother's life is in danger ie if she doesn't have an abortion she will die, or if the baby is already dead in the womb.



I do not believe that abortions should be carried out because of the baby's likelihood to be born with disabilities; this is tantamount to saying that disabled people are second-class citizens who do not deserve the chance or the right to live!

I was 34 when I had my first child; I was offered tests for Downs' Syndrome but I refused. Whatever the outcome, I would not kill my baby! He was born healthy, and so was my daughter 2 years later.

Nor do I believe that rape of the mother, or changed financial circumstances, or they are not 'ready' to be a mother, or any other excuse they can come up with, is justification for the deliberate ending of a baby's life. Adoption is still an option.The mother might not want the baby, but there are plenty of other couples who would love to have a baby but are unable to have one of their own!

Answer 2

Did you read what you wrote ?



This makes no sense "I keep seeing all of these people writing things like 'No vagina, no say' type thing. And that it all leads to this 20 week abortion ban.", you realise what you are saying ??



That someone writes "no womb, no say" leads directly to a 20 week abortion ??!!! MAD !



I've written this several times and I've NEVER had an abortion, so that's cr@p.



Reasons for 20 weeks:

1- It's easy, you have a late determination and after a scan find the baby is DEAD inside you already

2- your boyfriend beats you up and turns out to be a terrible person and likely to be an abusive parent.

3- late determination that the foetus has a permanent disability.

4- Lost job and can't afford to bring the child up anymore.

5- because it's HER body and NOT YOURS !



When YOU get pregnant I will support YOUR right to choose, why do you think you can choose what another human being does with their body ??



There are PLENTY of children out there to be adopted, we don't need to force a women to suffer for 9 months to satisfy your religious intolerance.

Answer 3

Fetal abnormalities are actually very common. There is a huge range of conditions that can cause a fetus to be born dead, die soon after, or live a severely limited life. In the UK, these are usually diagnosed in the routine scan that takes place at 20 weeks. Having an extra 4 weeks to make a decision before the legal time limit is really important for parents.



Here are some other possible reasons:



1. You didn't realize you were pregnant. This is more possible than you might think. Many women continue to have bleeds during pregnancy. Others do not have periods normally because they are on a form of hormonal contraception that stops periods, or they have irregular periods due to age (teenager or approaching menopause), unusually low or high body fat percentage, stress, or other conditions.

2. It takes you several months to raise the money for abortion. This is particularly an issue in the US, where abortion can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars and isn't usually covered by insurance. There are millions of Americans earning just enough to cover their basic expenses. Suddenly raising thousands of dollars is simply impossible for these people. Recent laws requiring mandatory ultrasounds and counselling before abortion (which the woman must pay for) that have been introduced in many states have made this problem worst.

3. It takes you a long time to make arrangements for the abortion. Again, this is a problem in the US, where some states only have one clinic for the entire state (e.g. North Dakota, which is a larger area than the whole of the UK, has only one abortion clinic). It also has laws requiring an ultrasound, waiting period, and counselling, so a woman would need to make multiple trips to the clinic, each one requiring a drive of several hours. It can take time to book time off work and organize childcare for existing children.

4. Teenagers, recent immigrants with limited English, drug/alcohol users, women with mental illnesses, and women in abusive relationships all have trouble accessing abortion because they find it difficult to see a doctor and navigate the healthcare system. Teenagers may also take a long time to recognize symptoms of pregnancy.

5. In the UK, some women have needed late-term abortions because their GPs have lied to them and told them that they wouldn't be allowed an abortion. Most GPs are very good about referring people to abortion clinics, but some will deliberately delay the process. There are also waiting lists of about 3 weeks for NHS abortions in many regions.



BPAS published a list of reasons why women had abortions at 22-24 weeks at one of their clinics. It's eye-opening reading.

http://www.bpas.org/js/filemanager/files/bpas_press_briefing_late_abortion.pdf

Answer 4

Well, you might be a poor woman living in Texas with a full-time minimum-wage job from which you have no paid vacation and two children already that you can't get overnight child care for and no way to pay for an abortion until you save up the money because you don't have insurance and Medicaid won't pay for it, and now you live three hundred miles from the nearest clinic that even performs abortions because of what the Texas legislature just passed, and you may not have a car at all, let alone one that's reliable enough to make such a long trip safely or the money to buy enough gas to make it. Under those circumstances, it might take you until you're twenty weeks pregnant to find a way to actually be in the presence of a doctor who will perform an abortion on you with the money to pay him or her to do it.

Answer 5

To answer your first question, birth defects, sickness and a change of circumstances are all possible reasons. While most birth defects *can* be detected before 20 weeks, not all will be confirmed by that time. In addition, in countries like America, financial resources and access to a healthcare are major problems: there is no national health service, and despite recent reforms, it is still entirely possible for people will health insurance to lack affordable coverage for pre-natal screening. Even once screening takes space, there, the patient may not be able to travel to a clinic willing and permitted to carry out an abortion. Apparently around 2% of pregnancies involve a birth defect, so this is probably not as uncommon as you assume.



The mother's health complications are another reason - you may recall the recent case in Ireland: a woman died because doctors refused to perform a late-term abortion. While these cases are rare, there are many who would say that even one case is enough.



However, there are other reasons for the kind of reaction you are asking about. Women in states like Texas believe, correctly, that legislators are attempting to skirt their constitutional right to an abortion. The 20 week limit in Texas's most recent statute is only one of a range of measures designed to restrict access to abortions. Others including attempting to force clinics which provide them to close. Many people feel that this is an illegitimate attempt to ban abortion without formally banning abortion.

Finally, the process by which the the Texas legislation was passed was controversial and featured dubious interpretations of the legislature's own rules and simply ignoring certain female members of the senate. Despite this the bill failed to pass in time, whereupon the Governor recalled the legislature for a (second) special session, for little reason other than to pass the bill. After this process, it is understandable that the bill's opponents felt that their voices have been denied.

Answer 6

I needed one at over 20 weeks. By the time I found out I was pregnant and managed to get to a doctor it was past 20 weeks. I was 16 and scared and never even had a pelvic exam before.



No one in my area did them past 20 weeks so I would have had to go to a big city hours away. I didn't drive or have anyone to drive me and I didn't have insurance or money and it would have cost thousands of dollars so I had to go through with the pregnancy and give it up for adoption.



If there had been serious birth defects or other problems I would not have known about them until then as I had no prenatal care other than the single visit to try to get an abortion that I couldn't get.

Answer 7

A woman might not realise she's pregnant until quite late on.



Some foetal abnormalities can't be detected until roughly 11-13 weeks into the pregnancy, and counselling and indecision can easily add a few weeks to the termination date.



Amnoicentesis tests are usually done in the 15th or 16th week of pregnancy as it takes this long for enough amniotic fluid to be present for a decent sized sample, the results won't necessarily be known right away.

Answer 8

1. You find out that the baby has some sort of serious, untreatable medical condition

2. YOU develop a serious medical condition and the pregnancy puts your life in danger.

3. your personal circumstances change so that you won't be able to care for the child and you don't like the other options

4. Your mental or emotional condition prevents you from making decisions easily.



There are more.

Get your head out of your ***.

Answer 9

IF the mother's health is at risk, or the baby's then an abortion may be offered

Off course the mother can refuse

Answer 10

Because these laws also include protracted hoops the woman must jump through to get the abortion.



When you require multiple visits and even absurd courses, while limiting the number of clinics able to perform the abortion, you've basically done your best to make any abortion impossible.



A woman might need more than ten weeks to raise the money or get the vacation time to get the abortion.

Answer 11

some may not want the child and could not afford to pay for the abortion until later or merely did not find out they were pregnant. some also may be undecided about what the want to do with the child.

no need to judge anyone's choice if or if not they have an abortion.

Answer 12

Watch video the silent scream. You'll learn from a medical doctor that your teachers lied to you. Scientific FACT, 5 weeks, development of CNS and heart is in place. According to Biology, science, life does indeed start at meiosis (conception). At 23 or 24 weeks doctors are willing an able to use life saving procedures to save the baby. This is all scientific and medical FACTS.

Answer 13

To make sure the baby feels as much pain as possible.

Answer 14

No income is the best reason. Anyhow, Why does rape make a difference. If it's ok for that reason after 20 weeks then any reason should be ok as well.

Answer 15

None.

As you stated, extreme abnormalities are very rare, and they can be detected before 20 weeks of gestation.

Answer 16

In the USA, a women on MSNBC said the other day, that new born babies are not technically alive yet and there should be an option to abort after birth. YES AFTER birth. If you don't believe google it.

Answer 17

At 20weeks the baby doesn't have any features that are human like (?) they cannot feel pain at this stage.