This is in response to Anne Donahue’s opinion piece in which she cited the Guttmacher Institute’s statistics on third-trimester abortion.
Rep. Donahue quoted the statistics as saying there were 12,000 third-trimester elective abortions in the U.S. each year. Unfortunately, most of us are never taught how to read and understand statistics in school (which is an entirely different pet peeve of mine).
Regardless of how one feels about the proposed amendment to the Vermont Constitution, the actual statistic is that there were approximately 12,000 third-trimester abortions in this country in 2016. Nowhere does the Guttmacher Institute say why these abortions were performed. The word “elective” is not used.
The likelihood is that they were performed either to preserve the mother’s life or because of fetal death or similar complications. In my 45 years as a physician, I have never known any physician who has performed, or would perform, a third-trimester abortion for any other reason. I suppose one could call these “elective,” although most that I was aware of were absolute emergencies (such as a dead fetus precipitating sepsis in the mother). And they are exceedingly rare.
Lisa Catapano-Friedman, MD
Manchester Center