Extremists on the Ballot in 2024
By Sarah Neely
Washington, D.C. – During last week’s presidential debate, former President Donald J. Trump highlighted the Democrats’ extreme position on abortion, stating that the party is willing to “take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth.”
When given time to respond, President Joe Biden failed to even address this statement – likely because everything the Democrats have done since the overturn of Roe v. Wade demonstrates a complete devotion to abortion through all nine months, for any reason.
A few moments later, President Biden was asked directly, “Do you support any legal limits on how late a woman should be able to terminate a pregnancy?”
Biden again failed to answer the question, and the comment he did offer certainly did not reflect support for gestational limits on abortion: “I believe in Roe v. Wade, which had three trimesters. The first time is between the woman and the doctor, the second time is between a doctor and an extreme situation, the third time is between the doctor–I mean–between the woman and the state.”
In fact, Roe v. Wade is not the case that made abortion legal through all nine months. Instead, Roe’s companion case, Doe v. Bolton, federally allows for abortion at any stage to protect a woman’s “health.” That broad term can include anything from physical health to mental or emotional health.
A recent study from the Charlotte-Lozier institute confirms that late-term abortion is available in the United States for any reason. The study refers to elective late-term abortion – not the imagined medical emergencies or dire situations that the Democrats constantly trot out.
Out of 193 U.N. countries, only eight allow elective abortion on demand through all nine months. America is tragically on that list, aligning our nation with countries like China, which is infamous for using forced abortion to intimidate and control citizens.
Operation Rescue also recently conducted a survey to identify how many abortion facilities in America offer abortion at 23 weeks and beyond – 23 weeks being the very cusp of the third trimester. The total is 58 facilities across 18 states.
“The Democrats want to convince America that late-term abortions are somehow rare and only happen due to extreme medical conditions,” says Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “The truth is that late-term abortion is widely available and for any reason. These painful late-term abortions are happening, and the Democrats want even more of them. As they push to enshrine abortion in as many state constitutions as they can, opening the door for unfettered abortion across wide swaths of the country, these gruesome procedures will become more and more common – and preborn children will pay the price.”
Operation Rescue’s 2023 Annual Survey already identified a rise in late-term abortions just one year after Roe fell and pro-abortion states began doubling down to protect abortion at all costs. In 2022, the share of clinics that perform abortions after 20 weeks gestation was 16%. By 2023, that number increased to 20%.
That same survey showed an uptick in surgical clinics run by Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in America.
“Abortion is never a safe procedure,” Newman says, “but late-term abortions are particularly dangerous. We’ve documented too many women over the decades who met terrible ends due to complications from abortion in the second and third trimester.”
Tonya Reeves is one tragic example. She died in 2012, after a Planned Parenthood abortionist in Chicago stabbed a hole in her uterus during a second trimester abortion. Planned Parenthood delayed calling 911, letting Reaves hemorrhage internally, instead, for five-and-a-half hours.
In 2017, Keisha Atkins also died after developing an infection during a late-term induction abortion in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The abortion was performed at 24 weeks for “health” reasons determined during a 20-minute chat with the abortionist.
Democrats constantly push the lie that abortion is safer than childbirth, but never talk about the women who succumb to their injuries during the dangerous procedure. They even use this lie to defend late-term abortion for “health” reasons. However, a 2020 study published by the Catholic Medical Association found that “in the United States, the death rate from legal induced abortion performed at 18 weeks gestation is more than double that observed for women experiencing vaginal delivery.”
The study also found that, in Finland, where reporting of abortion deaths is far more accurate, “the risk of death from legal induced abortion is reported to be almost four times greater than the risk of death from childbirth.”
“President Trump was absolutely right to call out the Democrats as abortion extremists,” said Newman.
“The Biden administration, on the other hand, has spent the last two years forcing abortion on the American people, even to the extent of utilizing our own veteran hospitals to kill children in the womb. His Department of Justice has raided the homes of innocent citizens and manipulated the law to secure four- and five-year prison sentences for peaceful pro-life advocates. Meanwhile, violence, vandalism, and intimidation against pro-life centers and their compassionate workers have gone unpunished. Trump is the only choice in this upcoming election – for the sake of preborn children and for the sake of our own freedoms.”
This report may be republished with inclusion of the following acknowledgement: “This article was originally published by Operation Rescue, a leading pro-life, Christian activist organization dedicated to exposing abortion abuses, demanding enforcement, saving innocent lives, and building an abortion-free America. The author, Sarah Neely, is Project Coordinator for Operation Rescue.”
