Abortion debate - things you need to know

Firstly, gakked from crack_news: Women Wrongly Warned Cancer, Abortion Tied. "In several states, women considering abortion are given government-issued brochures warning that the procedure could increase their chance of developing breast cancer, despite scientific findings to the contrary."

There's no link between abortion and breast cancer. Scientists have been investigating a possible link for years after some studies suggested abortion might increase a woman's risk of breast cancer; after numerous studies they've been unable to confirm any connection between the two. Some pro-lifers cling to outdated or even false information on this issue, even masquerading as non-partisan organisations online. Obviously if there was such a link, women would need to be told about it, as part of informed consent to a medical procedure; but it's clear the claims are just a scare tactic.

Don't take my word for this. Read the statements from the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the findings of a review published in the British medical journal The Lancet this year. (A news item from CBS explains the study's findings.)

Abortion debate - things you need to know

Secondly, 17catherines followed up my initial posting with some info about late-term abortions, and kindly gave me permission to quote it:
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Putting on my Genetic Counselling hat for a moment (since I feel this is where I know the most), I can't help feeling that banning post-21-week abortions is one of the silliest places to start with this debate. You probably already know this, but these days most women are offered first or second trimester screening early in pregnancy. When I say offered, although there is theoretically informed consent, many women go ahead without really understanding what the screening test is for.

If you are unlucky, you find out about 14-15 weeks (at the earliest into the pregnancy, that you have screened at 'high risk' for one of a range of conditions - theoretically, we are looking for Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and, in second trimester, neural tube defects, but the way the tests work, other things might be picked up too. A 'high risk' means, you have unusual levels of hormones, the ultrasound had something unusual (usually a thickened nuchal fold), and we think your overall risk, factoring age, is somewhere less than 1 in 250 (obviously, you are given a more exact figure, but it is still only a probability). But you still don't know for certain if anything is wrong.

You find that out by having an amniocentesis - which can only be done after 16 weeks, if I recall correctly, and definitely takes 2 weeks to process.

So suddenly, at 18 weeks in, at the very earliest, you may be facing a very nasty diagnosis, without really having had much time to prepare for it. The child you are now thinking about terminating is not an accident, or if it is, it is one you decided long ago to carry on with. It is a wanted child - except now you don't know whether you can cope with this diagnosis...

If you terminate at this late stage, you have to go through labor. There is generally a waiting period of a few days to over a week before you can have the termination (this is about availability, not morals).

What I am saying, in a long-winded fashion, is that the majority of terminations after 21 weeks are for medical reasons. In fact, it is extremely difficult to have a termination after 22 weeks without a medical reason - I don't think it is possible at all after 24 weeks, except in an emergency (ie, hypertension - mother's life at risk).

When we target abortions post 21-weeks, we are not targeting the 'irresponsible women using abortion as a contraceptive' that some people like to wring their hands over. We are targeting women who have very frightening medical conditions, or who have found themselves with the prospect of raising a child with a very nasty illness.

Personally, I favour mother over fetus every time. But even if I didn't, this seems like the wrong end of the problem to start with.
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17catherines is a qualified (but not yet practicising) genetic counsellor.