Many people are not aware that abortions in the late second and third trimester are legal, much less that they occur often. Read more about late term abortion in this section. Most late term abortions are done for elective, not medical, reasons.
Pro-choice feminist Wendy Simonds interviewed clinic workers who talked about how they felt when their clinic started performing abortions up to 26 weeks.
From one clinic worker:
“… We were so excited that women who were 26 weeks could get an abortion at our clinic and not have to go to Pavilion for a saline induction… But we were also extremely sensitive to what the increasing gestation was going to do to us as human beings… We’re just not hardened to the fact that abortion is hard. The women… are going to be in more pain… The abortions are going to be longer. The assistant is going to have to watch a much, you know, further abortion. And there’s a marked difference between 26 weeks and 21 weeks in terms of fetal development… We had [meetings] where we talked about our feelings… We talked about the ambivalence about wanting to provide this service and being really excited about it and being really nervous about handling the tissue.”
From another:
“so I felt like the women were getting a good procedure. And then I also felt… Thank God that were doing this!… I’m glad we’re doing it.”
Picture of an abortion around 26 weeks
A third clinic worker:
“I like that we go up to 26 weeks. For a while it kind of gave me some things to learn… Plus it gives a whole new dimension to working with those women who come in for later abortions. It’s, like, great because they almost can’t have an abortion. They’re almost about to have a baby, and they don’t want to. And they’re really appreciative.”
Wendy Simonds. Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1996) 62, 63
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