Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to letters@bangordailynews.com
On Monday, May 1, I went to Augusta to the public hearings on bills to protect abortion rights. Gov. Janet Mills made it clear that LD 1619 covers later abortions when deemed medically necessary by the pregnant person and their doctor. “Day-before-birth” abortions literally don’t exist. Yet conservative lawmakers threw these terms around as if they are common, casual occurrences.
I think their language is unnecessarily incendiary. There is not a doctor anywhere who would abort a baby the day before birth. Later abortions happen when drastic abnormalities appear that can only be detected after a certain level of development. Or when some impossible life events have changed the pregnant person’s circumstances.These decisions are agonizing.
Conservatives argue that scientific developments allow for the viability of a 22 week fetus. That is not the issue. A child is not born into a vacuum. Parents can face enormous life challenges from economic instability and substance use disorder to domestic violence and mental illness. These obstacles impact a child for a lifetime.
The bottom line is that the decision to abort is about much more than just the pregnant person and their body. A person unable or unwilling to raise a child into adulthood can have profound life circumstances that could harm a child. These women are advocating for their lives and for the child. A child raised in chaos will have a lifetime of pain and suffering. And an abortion can be the most loving and profoundly “pro-life” choice a person can make.
Jo Trafford
Portland