Trump Thinks Abortion Involves 'Ripping Babies' Out Days Before Pregnancy
Donald Trump revealed just how little he actually knows about pregnancy and abortion during the third presidential debate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday night.
He said that women get abortions literally days before their due dates, which is, frankly, a ridiculous claim to make.
Trump and Hillary Clinton were having an exchange about late-term abortions.
Trump said,
If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby.
He continued,
You can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day.
Trump believes that late-term abortions happen literally days before a due date. That's... just... not a thing.
Trump made it sound like late-term abortions are both a common and thoughtlessly done procedure.
They are not.
Late-term abortions are incredibly rare. According to the CDC, 91.4 percent of abortions in America occurred before 13 weeks of pregnancy in 2012. Just 1.3 percent of abortion occurred after 21 weeks of pregnancy.
Many late-term abortions that happen are due to health issues -- either a health threat to the mother's life or a terrible diagnosis for the fetus.
As Clinton said,
The kinds of cases that fall at the end of pregnancy are often the most heartbreaking, painful decisions for families to make.
Clinton told Trump he should speak to women who had later-term abortions to understand why they happen.
Earlier this year, I spoke to Dr. Valerie Peterson who had to travel from her home state of Texas to Florida to get an abortion after her 16th week of a very much wanted pregnancy.
Her fetus was diagnosed with a brain disorder "100 percent incompatible with life." She discussed the diagnosis with her doctor, her daughters and her friends before deciding to get an abortion. Peterson told me,
It was a tough, tough decision to make. It was not made lightly; it was made with a heavy heart.
Had she not gotten the abortion, she would've either had a stillbirth or a miscarriage. If she had to go through that, she told me, she might have killed herself.
Late-term abortions are not thoughtlessly made. They are not common. And they definitely don't happen days before a due date.
Clinton went on to say that she's met with women around the world who were both forced to have an abortion and forced to bear a child.
All of these cases proved to her, she said, that the government has "no business" in the decisions women make.
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Citations: CDC
