Late-term abortion isn’t easy; don’t make it harder

The State must have considered the largely symbolic vote on the pain-capable unborn child protection act to be pretty important since it was published twice in the Jan. 28 edition (4A and 10A). Yet there was no substantive analysis of the effects of shortening the period in which legal termination of pregnancy may occur.

Many couples are waiting longer to marry and start a family. Later pregnancy presents a higher risk of birth defects. Often such couples request an amniocentesis to determine whether their unborn child suffers from a devastating medical condition. The risk of complications and miscarriage is much higher if the test is performed before the second trimester, and time is required to analyze the test results and make the crushing decision of whether to continue gestation of a terminally ill child or terminate the pregnancy. Reducing of the time in which a legal termination can occur compresses the window for this difficult and highly personal decision.

Rather than treating this as another political horse race focusing on how much money each side can raise from its base, why not try to explore the issues underlying the policy?

The State publishes a cross section of the letters we receive from South Carolinians in order to provide a forum for our community and also to allow our community to get a good look at itself, for good or bad. The letters represent the views of the letter writers, not necessarily of The State.

This story was originally published February 15, 2018 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Late-term abortion isn’t easy; don’t make it harder."