Are we allowed to express a libertarian view point here

[ShazzieB]

237. I agree whole-heartedly.

I didn't used to have a problem with the idea of gestational limits, but a while back I came to the realization that they are unnecessary. The people who have pushed for them the hardest are the so-called "pro life" crowd, who seem to be convinced that without such limits, people will get abortions willy-nilly, at any stage of gestation, just because they can. Therefore, their argument goes, we MUST have these limits or else havoc will ensue! (These same people are also constantly trying to roll gestational limits on abortion farther and farther back, because their real agenda is trying to make it harder and harder to access abortion care legally.)

The need for gestational limits is simply based on false premises. The truth of the matter is, most abortions happen as early in pregnancy as possible, because someone who gets pregnant and doesn't want to be is anxious to take care of things as soon as she can. A woman doesn't choose to wait until late in a pregnancy to have an abortion because she just woke up one morning and decided she didn't feel like being pregnant anymore.

Most abortions that happen at a later stage of gestation occur because something is desperately wrong with either the woman's health, the development of the fetus, or both. Many severe fetal abnormalities are not diagnosable until the fetus reaches a certain stage of development, and pregnancy complications can crop up at any time. Decisions about how best to treat such problems are medical decisions and should be left up to properly trained health care providers, in consultation with their patients (and anyone else the patient chooses to involve, such as their partner). Everybody else needs to stay out of it!

In short, the idea that gestational limits on abortion need to be enacted into law is based on the belief that there is a need to 1) prevent people from doing certain things that are assumed to be harmful and 2) punish them if they do those things. If you look at abortion as a medical decision, there is no reason not to trust pregnant people and their doctors to make these decisions without direct governmental involvement.