That’s funny you think I used a non-credible source, because the Salon article links directly to the same jama paper you linked to. First sentence in the “Conclusion” section:
Evidence regarding the capacity for fetal pain is limited but indicates that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester.
My bad, then. When I saw what site I was on, I only skimmed the article.
I’m sure you’ll consider NPR a biased source as well, but you might want to read up a little on “partial-birth abortions” (politically charged term btw) to see how often they’re done. (granted this is 10 years old but I’d be surprised if the percentages have changed much)
http://www.npr.org/2006/02/21/5168163/partial-birth-abortion-separating-fact-from-spin
According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights research group that conducts surveys of the nation’s abortion doctors, about 15,000 abortions were performed in the year 2000 on women 20 weeks or more along in their pregnancies; the vast majority were between the 20th and 24th week. Of those, only about 2,200 D&X abortions were performed, or about 0.2 percent of the 1.3 million abortions believed to be performed that year.
And contrary to the claims of some abortion opponents, most such abortions do not take place in the third trimester of pregnancy, or after fetal “viability.” Indeed, when some members of Congress tried to amend the bill to ban only those procedures that take place after viability, abortion opponents complained that would leave most of the procedures legal.
2,200 partial-birth abortions per year and 15,000 late-term abortions is still a lot. I didn’t mean to imply that I thought they were common, though I did think the numbers were a bit higher for third trimester and partial birth abortions (I thought it was something closer to 5% for the former and just a bit less for the latter).
By the way, look how fewer abortions are occurring. This is great news…no one want abortions. I just want the option available.
I wouldn’t say no one–I’ve encountered people who advocate them as a form of population control–but it is indeed great news. One thing we need to do more of is fix the underlying problems that lead to abortions, and hopefully the decreased numbers are a sign that progress is being made in those areas.