During Tuesday night’s presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris refused to say whether she opposes late-term abortions and denied that they occur in the United States.
However, more than a dozen states do, in fact, allow abortions on demand after the point of viability, and nine of those states allow abortions throughout the pregnancy.
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Additionally, studies by pro-abortion groups and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that thousands of abortions occur in late pregnancy each year.
“Nowhere in the United States does a woman carry a pregnancy to term and ask for an abortion,” the vice president said. “That is not happening, it is an insult to the women of the United States.”
During the debate, Trump said that Harris’ promise to codify Roe v. Wade in national law it would legalize late-term abortion. The landmark Supreme Court ruling, now defunct, forced states to allow abortion at least up to the point of fetal viability, at which point the unborn child could survive outside the womb. The exact timing of fetal viability is different for each pregnancy, but this usually occurs at week 23 or 24.
Trump said Harris would support abortion in “the seventh month, the eighth month (and) the ninth month,” to which Harris replied, “That’s not true.”
When asked by ABC debate moderator Linsey Davis if she would support any abortion restrictions, Harris dodged the question and said she supports what she called abortion “protections.” Roe v. Wade. Harris used the word “protections” to refer to legalizing abortion, not to refer to protecting the unborn.
Although ABC debate moderators Davis and David Muir intervened to “fact-check” Trump on several of his arguments, neither of them corrected Harris to inform viewers where late-term abortions are legal and occur in the United States. .
However, Roe v. Wade did not prohibit states from allowing abortion much later in pregnancy, some of which do allow abortion in the seventh, eighth, and ninth months.
In nine states and Washington, DC, abortion is legal throughout pregnancy, up to the moment of birth, for any reason. In one state, elective abortion is legal until the second trimester, which ends at the end of the 27th week of pregnancy. In four other states, abortion is legal until the 24th week of pregnancy, regardless of whether the fetus has already achieved viability.
States where late-term abortion on demand is legal
The most permissive abortion laws are found in Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. A woman may obtain a legal abortion during the ninth month of pregnancy, up to the time of delivery, for any reason.
Minnesota, the home state of Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, has some of the most permissive pro-abortion laws in the country. Walz signed a law in January 2023 that declared abortion “a fundamental right” and prohibited local governments from taking any measures that interfere with that legal right. This provided even stronger protections for Minnesota’s abortion laws, which allow the procedure up to the moment of birth.
Virginia allows elective abortion until the second trimester of pregnancy, which ends at week 27. This is three to four weeks after the fetus can survive outside the womb.
In four other states—Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Hampshire—abortion is legal at the 24th week of pregnancy, regardless of whether the fetus is viable. About a dozen states allow abortion up to the point of viability, which is often determined by the doctor, who may be an abortionist. More than 20 states restrict abortion before viability.
How often does late-term abortion occur?
State laws vary on what data abortion clinics must record and report to the government. Most states provide some data to the federal government, but the CDC does not offer a complete breakdown of the exact gestational ages of unborn children at the time of an abortion.
However, the CDC reports its estimates of how many abortions occur at the 21st week of pregnancy or later. In 2019, the CDC estimated that around 4,882 abortions were performed at least 21 weeks or more into pregnancy. The data is incomplete because it excludes the nine states that allow abortion at that stage of pregnancy and the District of Columbia.
The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which provides estimates through voluntary surveys, reported that around 0.9% of abortions were performed at week 21 or later in 2023. The report estimated more than 1 million abortions in total, which would mean that more than 9,000 abortions occurred at week 21 or later.
If the Guttmacher Institute report is correct, this would mean that, on average, between 24 and 25 abortions at week 21 or later occur every day in the United States.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Tyler Arnold
Tyler Arnold is a reporter for the National Catholic Register. He previously worked at The Center Square and has published in various outlets, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative and The Federalist.