[Khadra]

For all the pro-choicers, does late term abortion change your stance? If not, do you believe late term abortions are always okay or only under certain conditions?

Definitions vary depending on where they're coming from, so for this thread let's say late term is after the 20th week of gestation.

Keep in mind nearly all pregnancies are viable after the 27th week, and no pregnancies are viable before the 21st week.

United States: In 2003, from data collected in those areas that sufficiently reported gestational age, it was found that 6.2% of abortions were conducted from 13 to 15 weeks, 4.2% from 16 to 20 weeks, and 1.4% at or after 21 weeks.[13] Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual study on abortion statistics does not calculate the exact gestational age for abortions performed past the 20th week, there are no precise data for the number of abortions performed after viability.[13] In 1997, the Guttmacher Institute estimated the number of abortions in the U.S. past 24 weeks to be 0.08%, or approximately 1,032 per year.[14]

Taken from wikipedia:
These 420 women were asked to choose among a list of reasons they had not obtained the abortions earlier in their pregnancies. The results were as follows:[3]
71% Woman didn't recognize she was pregnant or misjudged gestation 48% Woman found it hard to make arrangements for abortion
33% Woman was afraid to tell her partner or parents
24% Woman took time to decide to have an abortion
8% Woman waited for her relationship to change
8% Someone pressured woman not to have abortion
6% Something changed after woman became pregnant
6% Woman didn't know timing is important
5% Woman didn't know she could get an abortion
2% A fetal problem was diagnosed late in pregnancy
11% Other


As of 1998, among the 152 most populous countries, 54 either banned abortion entirely or permitted it only to save the life of the pregnant woman


There is more information and statistics on wikipedia if you want to look. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late-term_abortion


EDIT: Can anyone explain what exactly happens to the fetus/baby during a late term abortion? I can't seem to find anything with much detail but this biased website. I don't know how accurate it is, but if it is accurate it's extremely sad and disgusting (in my opinion). http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14203