What's your Abortion Policy?

[bedstuy]

Pro-choice. 

In principle, I would be fine with restricting abortions after a certain point, perhaps 16 weeks.  There is something very wrong to me about a late term abortion where the only reason is the convenience of the mother.  However, I think there are valid reasons why a woman would want a late-term abortion.  It could be the health of the mother, serious defects with the fetus or some other extenuating circumstance.

The problem is then, how do you make a rule that makes room for extenuating circumstances like the health of the mother?  I can't think of a good way to regulate whether there is a legitimate health concern with the mother or the fetus.  It's such a private, individual situation, both in terms of the individual moral concerns and the unique health situation.  In light of that, I think it's probably best to have those tough medical ethics questions resolved by women in consultation with their doctors.  If a woman is seeking an abortion that is not medically indicated and is very late in her pregnancy, a doctor should refuse to perform an abortion and submit the situation on an anonymous basis to a medical ethics review board.  Then, perhaps an ethical doctor could and would refuse the request to perform a late term abortion and that would be a better limit than a government blanket rule.