Life Links 7/25/11

Gallup has a new poll out on abortion restrictions. The public widely favors informed consent, parental consent, 24-hour waiting periods and bans on partial-birth abortion. They weren't as open to ultrasound legislation, conscience protections for health care providers and defunding abortion providers (though the framing of the last two questions really could change how people respond).

Respondents also overwhelmingly favored banning abortion in the 2nd trimester. 71% thought 2nd trimester abortions should be illegal. 86% thought 3rd trimester abortions should be illegal.


The Washington Post has a long article on late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart and his abortion business in Maryland.


Mother Jones interviewed a woman named Dana Weinstein who aborted her child at 29 weeks after a sonogram showed brain abnormalities.

She decided to end the pregnancy rather than continuing for another two months and prolonging the suffering. It was a very personal decision, she says, one made between her, her family, and her doctors. "We wanted her and loved her," Weinstein says. "In some ways I feel a little bit lucky, in that she was so sick that the decision was almost made for us. I don't wrestle with guilt."......

Even though she lived in Maryland and saw a doctor in Washington, DC, Weinstein found it difficult to obtain an abortion so far along in her pregnancy. There were no doctors, at the time, that offered the procedure at her stage in the Washington area. She had to travel to Dr. Warren Hern's clinic in Boulder, Colorado, far from her support network. Weinstein spent a week in Colorado between the initial visit with the doctor and the actual procedure, all the time worrying that the baby was suffering.

The New York Times has a piece on male contraception.


The NY Times also unsurprisingly editorializes against a court decision to stop the enforcement of New York City's pregnancy center law.


The Daily Mail has the story of an Irish woman who traveled to Britain for an abortion.

‘I wont regret this at all,' she said. ‘I'm not going to be one of those people who will think of this every year. I'll just forget it and move on. I'll have to make sure it never happens again. I just want this to be over and done with. I'm in an terrible state over the entire thing.'......

She said very little as we packed up our things and called a taxi for the airport. The ordeal had taken its toll – she looked pale and extremely emotional and occasionally wiped her eyes and nose with a tissue. She said she felt ‘hollow and exhausted'.

‘I still feel pregnant even though I know there is nothing there now,' she said.

‘I feel hugely guilty – guilty for keeping it a secret and guilty for what I've done. But I don't regret it. In time the guilt will go.'