Editor’s note. This appeared in the Spring edition of Right to Life of Michigan News and preceded the departure of pro-abortion Democrat Peter Buttigieg. While the former mayor of South Bend enjoyed only a temporary time in the media spotlight, in his appearance on the February 6 episode of The View on ABC, Buttigieg recycled one of the most common—and enduring– abortion myths.
In response to a question about allowing late-term abortions—even infanticide—Buttigieg said the following: “If this is a late-term situation, then by definition it’s one where a woman was expecting to carry the pregnancy to term. Then she gets the most perhaps devastating news of her life. We’re talking about families that may have picked out a name, may be assembling a crib, and they learn something excruciating and are faced with this terrible choice. And I don’t know what to tell them morally about what they should do.”
By any definition, his description of why late-term abortions happen is dead wrong. Perhaps Buttigieg was lying, or perhaps he has been coached to say that, or perhaps like many Americans he has seen news coverage of the issue and just believes that most late-term abortions are done for some reason connected to the health of the woman or child.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute is the abortion industry’s gold standard researcher. Despite their abortion industry ties and former open affiliation with Planned Parenthood, they are often cited in the media as dispassionate, unbiased researchers. They’ve done a recent study on the topic: “Who Seeks Abortions at or After 20 Weeks?”
The study authors admit the topic of late-term abortion hasn’t been studied very well and that most commentary on it involves exceptional cases: “We do not know how accurately these narratives characterize the circumstances of women who seek later abortions for reasons other than fetal anomaly or life endangerment. But data suggest that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.” [Emphasis added.]
That’s it, right there from the abortion industry itself.
Their study goes on to look at that group of “most women” who have late-term abortions to determine their reasons, and their study found they fit one of five profiles:
- Women raising children alone
- Women who are depressed or using drugs
- Women in conflict with a male partner or experiencing domestic violence
- Women who had trouble deciding
- Young women with several children
While we can sympathize with the very real conflicts these women might be facing, the compassionate response is not to take the life of a child—inside the womb through abortion or outside it through infanticide.