How Many Late-Term Abortion Doctors are Left?

| Mon Jun. 1, 2009 4:25 AM PDT

With the murder of Dr. George Tiller, women in desperate straits will find it even harder to locate a practitioner to terminate a pregnancy past a certain point (most physicians won't do them past about the first trimester). And if you wonder why a woman would need such a late abortion, you need to do some reading. A few years back, we profiled Dr. William Rashbaum, another late-term provider who worried a great deal about who would replace him. He has since passed away.

Back in his office, Rashbaum faces his next crisis: A shaky 29-year-old mother of two, sitting next to her husband, is set the following day to abort her 18-week fetus, which is developing without a brain. Visibly uncomfortable, the Long Island couple begins talking about referrals and medical history. The petite and pretty blond woman, a black T-shirt stretched over her bulging stomach, tells Rashbaum it was hard finding a doctor to end her pregnancy at this stage. He cuts off the measured discussion, pops in his hearing aid, and launches in: "The first thing I need to tell you is that you must mourn." The words, or maybe it's the gravelly voice, act as a cathartic, and the woman begins to cry. He reassures her that it's okay to be angry. What's happening to her isn't right or fair. Rashbaum also encourages her to kick her husband in the groin if at any point he tells her not to cry. Her fears quickly bubble to the surface. "Am I a freak?" she asks, insisting that she's great at pregnancy, even forgoing sugarless gum to ensure the health of her unborn child. She says she knows she couldn't have prevented this abnormality but still asks if she did something wrong. "Yeah," Rashbaum quips. "You thought bad thoughts." The woman and her husband laugh nervously, but they're laughing. There are other fears. They want to have another child (they have two boys; this was a girl). He tells them that out of 21,000 late-term abortions he has performed, only 18 women lost the ability to have children. He has also never lost a patient and says he'll be furious with her if she's the first.... After more nervous laughter, the woman broaches her greatest fears. She's not sure she wants to know the details. It's difficult to relinquish her role of protecting a fetus that has grown inside her for four and a half months. Welling up with tears again, she asks if it will feel pain. She doesn't want to hear much more.

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Monika Bauerlein is coeditor of Mother Jones. For more of her stories, click here. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Comments

Abortion should always be

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jun. 1, 2009 6:39 PM PDT.

Abortion should always be left a matter between a woman and her physician. Until one walks a mile in her shoes one does not know and should not judge.

Late Term Abortions

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Jun. 2, 2009 12:21 AM PDT.

Late Term Abortions aren't just a means for resolving pregnancies that have fetuses with abnormalities. I had severe preeclampsia (toxemia) during my pregnancy with my son. The highest that my blood pressure got was 175/115. I have damage to my liver, and to my vascular system from this pregnancy. I think that I also had a small stroke because I have difficulty forming letters when I handwrite something now. My son was delivered at 34 weeks and is healthy. I am afraid of ever getting pregnant again because I fear that I would find myself in a position where I would have to get a late term abortion to save my own life. I think that the Pro-Life side makes women who get late term abortions sound like they are only getting the abortion for convienience when the reality is that it is a grueling, gutwrenching, heartbreaking decision made under the most painful and dire of circumstances.

re Late Term Abortions

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Jun. 3, 2009 8:56 PM PDT.

tagged as:

solution

So sorry to read of your trouble and glad that your baby is well. I would like to see more expertise developed in the process of early birthing, to relieve mothers who encounter physical dangers in continuing the pregnancy, so that the baby is brought into the world and cared for, rather than killed in the process.
If the baby later dies the family could then mourn in the proper way and the grief could be resolved by the natural process, not stalled by feelings of guilt and the need for self-justification.
Late abortion also is a desperate trauma for the mother - no woman should be put in the position where she has to make such a dire choice. But who is searching for a better way?

//But who is searching for a

Submitted by Pro-choice (not verified) on Thu Dec. 17, 2009 5:07 PM PST.

//But who is searching for a better way?//

It is estimated that close to half of all pregnancies result in miscarriage (most occur before a woman even knows she is pregnant), but do pro-lifer prevent these, No. Some states are trying to define that life begins at conception, and are trying to put it into legeslation, never mind that it would make in vitro fertilization, stem-cell research, and several forms of contraceptives illegal. I have a feeling that if this ever happened, woman would be required to go in for monthly check-ups, requested by the government, to see if we were pregnant..."in order to protect the life of the inocent". If that ever happens I'm moving to Canada. I want to be an American. I don't want to live in Romania.

If you are Pro-life you should know: It's not the right to have an abortion, it's the right to have a child. It is no longer a right, if you are being forced to do something (come to think of it, you could also outright loose the right if they outlaw in vitro). I own my body. I want the right to have children!! Exept under really horrible situations, I would probably never get an abortion. But I mind my own buisness, and know there are cases I would want one and need one that are never put into legeslation when giving restrictions.

It's fine to be pro-life for yourself, and disapprove of people having abortions, and to think abortion is wrong. BUT KEEP IT OUT OF LEGESLATION!!! vote Pro-Choice! A woman's body is no place for the government to intrude.

Fewer than 1% of abortions occur in the 3rd trimester and when they do, they happen because, either, the mental or physical health of the patient was jeaporized, her life was at risk, or she discovered a servere fetal anomally (i.e. anencephally, siamese twins, terminating a fetus for the life of another fetus). Its amazing how many people think late-term abortions occur because of convenience.

Anti-abortion laws do not

Submitted by christine (not verified) on Mon Jan. 25, 2010 9:10 PM PST.

Anti-abortion laws do not make womenwho have abortions criminals, they make abortionists criminals. A women who has an abortion was involved in the murder of one child. An abortionists murders thousands of children. Your comment about monthly checkups by the government of pregnant women is rather hysterical. I agree that women do have the choice to kill their unborn children. There may be dire emotional consequences and physical consequences to this choice. The government is right and just in making it illegal for doctors to intentionally kill babies and leaving this life and death decision to the woman to decide and carry out as she sees fit. Most abortions are not due to a malformation or defect, they are are do to a woman not wanting a baby at this particular time in her life and an abortionist nearby who is very happy to make a ton of money to kill these babies. Further, even in cases of diabetes and toxemia, a baby can be delivered surgically as early as 22 weeks.
Maternal death from diabetes, toxemia etc. can be prevented by a c-section at this time. If a child has a malformation, a miscarriage will occur naturally or the child will be born disabled. There is a registry waiting list of families who wish to adopt disabled babies if a mother does not wish to raise a diabled child. I think it is awful to make families feel that abortion is the answer for their malformed child. I have read stories of women who found out after an abortion that their twenty or so week old baby was perfect and that the ultrasound was read wrong. Abortion is a great evil. It takes an innocent life. It stops a beating heart, even if it is a weak or disabled heart. As a society, we should be protecting those most innocent and vulnerable, not tossing them to the wolves (abortionists).