My mother is an OB-GYN nurse midwife who works at two hospitals and teaches classes at two colleges in town.
I've spoken to her at length about this. Her experience (and she's been either an OB-GYN nurse or a nurse midwife for almost 35 years) has been that mothers who have late term abortions are NOT doing it for birth control. Everyone she's ever dealt with has wanted the baby desperately, spent a lot of time agonizing over the decision and were devastated that it had to end that way. In every case the child would not have lived outside the womb and many could have caused the mother to die or require major surgery if she had continued to keep the baby until full term.
The new law is obviously very arbitrary regarding what they consider "the health of the mother" exception as proven by judges who KNOW the law filing against it. My Mom made the point that the women who are having late term abortions performed for birth control will do exactly what the women who want early term abortions performed will do if they were outlawed - they WOULD find a doctor to perform them.
It's not a pretty thing for anyone to have to deal with, but again, I'm going by what she's telling me and she has no reason to lie. They are necessities in every situation she's witnessed and I find it hard to believe the rest of the country is that much different.
Last edited by Peaches at Nov 10 2003, 09:11 AM