Guttmacher Institute’s State Issues Manager Elizabeth Nash recently told Raw Story that obstetricians start the clock on pregnancies after the “last menstrual period” to “be on the safe side.”
“Certainly, they are trying move the gestational cutoff from what had been over the last two years a 20-week gestational cutoff to an 18-week gestational cutoff,” Nash explained. “At the same time, they are trying to say, ‘Oh, this is a 20-week abortion ban.’ And they get away with that with the definition of gestational age that’s in the bill.”
Even experts who do not disagree with dating pregnancies from the last menstrual period, think that 18 weeks (or 20 weeks gestational age) is far too restrictive.
“Imposing gestational age limits is wrong,” Dr. Jennifer Gutner, who is an OB/GYN, recently wrote, referring to a similar bill in Georgia. “There are unfortunate circumstances where lethal or very severe anomalies are not detected until the 3rd trimester. I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to tell a woman who is pregnant with a baby who has no brain and a single eye like a cyclops that she has to go to term.”
the repubs think it's their place
