-We are back talking
about coverage
of anti-abortion legislation.
-Late-term abortion.
-Sweeping new restrictions
on abortion.
-At least 15 states have enacted
abortion restrictions
or outright bans in 2019.
-The spotlight is back
on abortion,
which means politicians
on both sides of the aisle
are spinning facts to support
their side of the debate.
So what's right
and what's flat-out wrong?
Anti-abortion advocates
have claimed abortion
is more dangerous
than ever before.
Live Action told us
they were editorializing,
and they deleted
the original tweet.
They said their judgment
was based on the fact
that there's limited data
about complications
associated with abortions.
Overall, the mortality rate
for a woman
having an abortion is very low.
Now abortions have less
short-term risk
than carrying
a pregnancy to term.
-Our choice!
-Abortion-rights advocates paint
a bleak picture of the future
for women
if Roe v Wade is overturned.
-This is a very dangerous time
for women's health
in our country.
Before Roe v Wade, thousands
of people died every year
because they didn't have access
to safe, legal abortion.
-Abortion was recorded as
the official cause of death
for thousands of women
in the 1930s and '40s,
but the stigma associated
with the procedure
meant those numbers
aren't concrete.
By the 1950s, antibiotics,
like penicillin,
and improved
contraception methods
helped curb the mortality rate.
The year before Roe v Wade,
official reports said
fewer than 100 women died
as a result of abortions,
legal or illegal.
So it's unlikely that thousands
of women would die
if Roe v Wade was overturned,
since abortion access would
revert back to something similar
to what we saw in 1972.
But that's not all that
abortion-rights
advocates are worried about.
-For women that are really
in that difficult position,
so-called "late-term abortions,"
some people try to make that
think that that's something
that commonly happens.
That happens when a woman's life
is being threatened,
and the viability of the fetus,
as well, is compromised.
-Those are very, very limited
circumstances and necessary.
-And the reasons
are heartbreaking.
-You're gonna hear the term
"fetal viability"
over and over and over again.
It basically means that a fetus
can survive outside the womb,
assuming we're talking about
a normal pregnancy.
The vast majority of abortions
take place
in the first trimester.
Just 1.
3% happen after 21 weeks.
Diana Greene Foster
has studied women
who elect to have abortions
after 20 weeks for reasons other
than compromised fetal viability
or danger to a woman's life.
-Women having abortions
at 20 weeks tends
to be women who didn't realize
they were pregnant
and then had a whole bunch
of access barriers
trying to get into
get their abortion.
That characterizes women
having abortions 20 to 24 weeks,
but it doesn't
characterize women
having abortions
in the third trimester.
And the reasons --
nobody has studied,
but it's extremely unlikely
that it's just delay
in realizing you're pregnant.
-In other words, we don't know
the exact breakdown
of why that 1.
3% of women decide to have
abortions after 20 weeks.
Another claim that you'll hear
a lot from anti-abortion
advocates
comes in the form of current
and proposed legislation.
-Weeks ago, lawmakers
in New York cheered
as they passed legislation
to allow babies
to be ripped
from the womb of their mother.
And then you have
this governor in Virginia.
You saw that.
The baby is born, and you wrap
the baby beautifully
and you talk to the mother
about the possible execution
of the baby.
-Let's be clear.
Infanticide, or killing a child
within a year of birth,
is illegal.
So just what did
the New York law
and the Virginia proposal allow?
It's helpful to first understand
what has been allowed since Roe.
-Let me read you what Roe v Wade
said in 1973, 46 years ago.
It said that states may
ban abortion after viability.
However, they have to allow it
where it is necessary
in appropriate
medical judgment
for the preservation of the life
or health of the mother.
-New York essentially codified
this language into state law.
-What New York passed has been
the law of the United States
for 46 years.
In Virginia, it's comparable.
-Virginia's proposal added
to the state's current law,
reducing the number of doctors
required to sign off
on third-trimester abortions
from three to one,
and it dropped a qualifier
that continuing pregnancy
would have to substantially
and irremediably harm
a woman's mental
or physical health.
In other words, these proposals
define the circumstances
when abortion
after viability can happen.
They do not allow infanticide.
Essentially, advocates on both
sides of this issue
will twist the facts
and use misleading data
in order to prove their point.
