ABORTION/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump on Tuesday [2-5-19] evening asked Congress to ban a type of abortion often referred to as ‘late-term abortion.’ He said he wanted to protect ‘children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb.’ He scorned New York’s recently passed Reproductive Health Act, saying that lawmakers had ‘cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth.’ It was an image he has used before, including in a campaign debate with Hillary Clinton. There are inaccuracies and gray areas in Mr. Trump’s assertions. Here’s an explanation of the terms and the science. What is late-term abortion and what does federal law allow? Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, said that abortion should be allowed until the time a fetus could survive outside the womb, a point (known as viability) that medical science generally considers to be at about 24 weeks of pregnancy. The Court has also specified that abortion should be legal after viability in certain cases — if continuing the pregnancy would seriously threaten the woman’s life or health.”
–Pam Belluck, “What Is Late-Term Abortion? Trump Got It Wrong,” The New York Times online, February 6, 2019