Do all states limit abortions in the 3rd trimester?

[usregimechange]

Of course they have to have life and health exceptions but do they otherwise restrict 3 trimester abortions?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. Roe v. Wade still determines that, but

If I recall correctly, there are a few (three?) states that have laws on the books expressly prohibiting third trimester abortions (the so-called "partial birth abortions," deliberated misnamed by the rightwingnuts).

Since there's no provision in those laws for exceptions protecting the lives of the mothers, the laws have been challenged, and will end up in the Supreme Court eventually.

This happened in VA the other day, and it's not inconsistent with what's going on in other jurisdictions:

A Virginia law banning a type of late-term abortion is unconstitutional. That's the ruling today from a divided federal appeals court in Richmond.

The panel ruled the 2003 law passed by the Virginia General Assembly is unconstitutional because it lacks an exception to protect a woman's health. The Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the law that bans a procedure generally performed in the second or third trimester in which a fetus is partially delivered before being killed. Anti-abortion activists call the procedure "partial-birth abortion."

A lower court blocked enforcement of the ban the day it went into effect.

http://tinyurl.com/9cd4u

[slackmaster]

2. It's worse than you think

Some states have (unconstitutional) laws on the books that ban abortions outright.

http://www.naral.org/yourstate/whodecides/maps/abortion_bans.cfm

[Warpy]

3. Pretty much. Conditions have to be met, and they may be

different in each state. Basically, the conditions are extreme deformity in the fetus that wasn't detected earlier (like anencephaly, for instance) or mortal risk to the mother or severe risk to her health if the pregnancy is continued. In those later circumstances, viable fetuses are preserved, if possible. However, the mother's health may be too precarious to survive induced labor or c-section, and that's when the D&X procedure that Congress banned comes in.

Most "late" abortions are second trimester abortions, and these too are restricted in some states. Normal fetuses that aren't life threatening are sometimes aborted over the line into the second trimester when the mother is a nine year old or there are other compelling social or health issues. Incest and rape are two of those.

Even those second trimester abortions are very rare. Most women and even children who find themselves pregnant decide to abort within the first eight weeks, with the majority coming in under six weeks.

[Divameow77]

4. I thought women couldn' t have an abortion before

7 weeks gestation? In Minnesota I don't believe there is a clinic that will do it beyond 20 weeks, but not sure about the exact law.

[Warpy]

5. Wrong

All you need is a positive pregnancy test and an appointment. Some clinics do a procedure called a "menstrual extraction," which a woman can get when she's less than a week late (or 3 weeks gestation) before the pregnancy test is reliable. RU-486 is also a very early gestation option.

[Missy Vixen]

6. Maybe one of the bright legal minds at DU

can answer the following. I had heard multiple times previously that one actually needs a court order to have a third-trimester abortion. I know that a woman would most likely need an affidavit from her physician at the very least of severe deformity or danger to the life of the mother to obtain one in any state permitting it.

Is this true?

Thanks for any light you can shed on this.

Julie