Late term abortion is currently a major debate in America. Some argue that all abortions should be illegal, while others argue that the choice is for the woman to make. However, abortions shouldn’t be allowed after a certain point in pregnancies.

A late abortion, defined by University of Vermont Legislative Research, occurs “during the third trimester of pregnancy around the 27th week.” In the US, many states have laws on late abortion. According to the New York Times, 43 states in America prohibit some abortions after a certain point in pregnancies. These laws have become a big discussion recently in the news. Should abortions be allowed at any point in a pregnancy, or should there be restrictions on how late women can get abortions? Should we allow abortions to be done at all?

In New York, an abortion can be done at any stage in a woman’s pregnancy before twenty-four weeks, unless the fetus isn’t viable. Once the fetus is fully developed, abortions can be painful to the baby, and many people would consider abortion on a fully developed unborn baby to be murder. According to spuc.org, recent studies have demonstrated unborn babies are capable of feeling pain by the 20th week of pregnancy.

Fetuses in the first few weeks of pregnancy are only cells and cannot physically feel pain. An abortion done on a pregnancy under twenty weeks will not hurt the fetus in any way. An abortion this early into the pregnancy should be legal, since the fetus is feeling no pain or harm whatsoever, and hasn’t developed a nervous system yet. However, after twenty weeks of pregnancy, the child has developed a nervous system and can feel pain. An abortion done on a pregnancy over twenty weeks will hurt the unborn baby, and they can feel pain at that stage. Therefore, no abortion should be done on a pregnancy over twenty weeks in.

Abortions are complicated. According to fcws.org, “A long needle is inserted through the mother’s belly into the amniotic sac. Fluid is removed from the sac and is replaced by a salt solution meant to kill the baby. In the 4th month of pregnancy, the baby is drinking a fluid to help organs develop. When salt solution is substituted for the normal fluid, it causes burning of the baby’s skin, eyes, mouth and lungs… resulting in the delivery of a badly burned, shriveled, dead baby.” This depicts the painful death unborn children past twenty weeks will endure during an abortion.

Abortions prior to twenty weeks of pregnancy should be legal, and a woman’s choice to make. After twenty weeks into pregnancy, abortion shouldn’t be done, and of course, be illegal.