Dear John, Look, it’s time for some real talk. “Late-term abortion”. You’ve probably heard that phrase a lot, along with hysterical hand wringing and intentionally gruesome misinformation. In the last four years, as we’ve traveled around the country fighting the forced birth extremists, one thing has become clear: they frame their fight as black and white, in the worst possible way, foisting their concept of morality onto everyone. And their concept of morality bears no resemblance to the nuanced world in which we live. Turns out that much like the rhetoric, “late-term abortion” is a totally made-up term and no reputable medical professional would use it. At AAF, we’ve made it our life’s work to cut through lies and myths about reproductive health care, especially those that endanger the lives of providers and pregnant people. As we move further into election season, this is one topic that will weaponized, so we are gonna shine some light on it. Because mainstream news sources sure as shit won’t. What we are really discussing is the 11% of abortions that happen after 12 weeks, or the first trimester. Medical professionals would describe these abortions as second or third trimester abortions or by the number of weeks of gestation at which the abortion occurs. This amazing article at Parents.com does a deep dive about how often and why they occur. And stories like I Had a Late-Term Abortion. I Am Not a Monster explain how pregnant people struggle with these intensely sad and difficult decisions. Anti-abortion extremists and very stable geniuses would like you to believe that “later abortions” are routinely “ripping babies from the womb” days before birth. They literally make this nonsense up to manipulate people by inciting panic and anger… and it totally works. Fake procedures like “partial birth abortion” find their ways into laws, and even “pro-choice” candidates find it entirely reasonable to call for restrictions on “late-term abortion”. It’s another tactic to make abortion a wedge issue. The reality is that only 1.3% of abortions happen after 21 weeks, and nearly all them happen before 24 weeks. Fetal anomalies or medical complications related to pregnancy are the primary reasons for abortions at this stage, although, ironically, abortion restrictions themselves may force people to have later abortion because they can’t access timely care. This why we fight… for truth, reproductive autonomy and medical privacy. Abortion Access Front is dedicated to moving forward accurate information and narratives about abortion and ensuring that ANYONE who needs and abortion can get it at ANY TIME. We proudly stand with abortion providers like Dr. Lee Carhart at Abortionclinics.org who provide abortions after 12 weeks. It’s been our honor to support them by sprucing up their clinic, boosting staff morale, and even help them move when they were suddenly pushed out of their existing clinic space. But we can only continue to do this work with your support.  
XO Lizz | 
