To anyone who hasn't had to think about this issue before, or who's only heard about it from anti-choice groups' rhetoric, the question makes sense. Jodi Jacobson has a great piece up at RH Reality Check about the specifics of the procedure -- namely that they constitute about 0.2% of all abortion procedures conducted in the U.S., that they're severely restricted by law under Roe v. Wade and are performed when the continuation of the pregnancy poses serious risks to the woman's life or health and could cause irreparable harm to the woman.
The heartbreaking part is that often times the women who elect to have this procedure done do so under dire circumstances, with pregnancies that were wanted yet for the woman's own safety simply cannot continue. And to that effect, I thought it would be worth sharing some of their stories.
- Gretchen Voss has a powerful first person story in the Boston Globe which won a Maggie. Her piece also appeared in Marie Claire.
- The site A Hearbreaking Choice has a collection of personal stories posted by women who traveled to Kansas to see Dr. Tiller.
- Self Magazine has a great piece on the tragic pregnancies at the center of late-term abortion debate.
- MSNBC's Keith Olbermann has an amazing piece on 'Who is Dr. Tiller'
- USA Today editorial: Our view on death in Wichita: Activists mount militant assault on abortion rights
- Washington Post editorial: Clinics in the Cross Hairs
And these two powerful editorials are also worth a read:
1 comment:
I've been trying to read as many of these stories as I can - I've been sending them to my mom, who's been donating to planned parenthood regularly since college but still was surprisingly in the dark about why "partial birth abortion" is a lie. Everyone ought to know that no abortion is an easy decision, and that these late-term abortions NEED to be legal and understood - even if they are the most heart-wrenching. Thanks for posting these, I hope everyone takes the time to read them.
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