The Truth about Late-Term Abortions

(Alternate title: "Yet another Bush lie from the debates.") Women's ENews aims to clear the air of some misconceptions.

Tammy Watts sat and seethed.

Perched on the edge of her couch in Queen Creek, Ariz., she could barely contain her frustration as she watched the last two presidential debates.

When President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry discussed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, Watts clenched her fists.

When Bush used the term "partial-birth abortion" and called it a "brutal practice," she buried her head in her hands.

Unlike many American voters, Watts knows that "partial-birth abortion" does not exist. Coined by anti-choice activists, this term cannot be found in any medical dictionary. Its imprecision, according to defenders of choice, could target a whole host of procedures.

In political forums like the presidential debates, this catchphrase has worked its way into usage and is widely assumed to mean late-term abortions. Though Bush calls these procedures "brutal," they are necessary to save the lives of women such as Watts, whose pregnancy entailed a rare complication.

"This ban threatens the lives of women who need emergency procedures," says Watts. "It's also so vaguely-worded that it could be used to outlaw any type of abortion."

Late-Term Abortions Save Women's Lives

If the ban were in place in 1995, Tammy Watts would likely be dead.

In March of that year, Watts was in the eighth month of a much-wanted pregnancy and was eagerly anticipating the birth of her first child. During a routine ultrasound (the only way to detect abnormalities that require late-term abortion), she discovered her baby had Trisomy 13, a chromosomal abnormality that causes severe deformities and carries no hope of survival.

Because her baby was already dying and because this put her own life at stake, Watts had an intact dilation and extraction (intact D and X), the procedure that Bush condemns as "brutal."

"Losing my baby at the end of my pregnancy was agonizing," says Watts. "But the way the right deals with this issue makes it even worse. When I heard Bush mention 'partial birth abortion' during the debates, I thought 'How dare you stand there and tell flat-out lies?' There is no such thing as this procedure! Why won't the politicians listen to us?"