From: nyikos@math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos)
Subject: Re: Arrogant Indians and Susan Forgach
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date: 14 Sep 92 18:42:19 GMT

In <BuDCqL.Hp0@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> gauri@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Gauri Pavate) writes:

>RIPBC@CUNYVM.BITNET writes:


>>One thing that is in my opinion objectionaable is that RvW does not allow
>>the state to give an incentive to the woman to have her abortion early.
>>Maybe there are uneducated women who do not know that they are prgnant,
>>but under the present system, even a woman who is teaching a course on
>>reproduction, MAY delay her abortion to five and half months if she wishes.


>	Well, actually it is found that most abortions in the U.S.
>do take place quite early on in pregnancy and much before the
>viability of the fetus.

>	About 91 percent of all abortions are found to occur in the 
>first trimester (1-12 weeks), about 9 percent occur in the second
>trimester (13-24 weeks), and only  .001 percent occur in the third
>trimester (past 24 weeks) when the fetus is considered viable.

There are several distortions here.

1.  Viability can occur as early as 19 weeks.

2.  Putting the beginning of the 3rd trimester at 24 weeks is
mathematically incorrect.  Correct is close to the end of the 26th
week.

3. .001 percent of 1,600,000 is taken by dropping the last five
zeros and arriving at 16.  No quoted figure is this low.  Perhaps
the intended figure was .01 percent.

3.  The figure of .01 percent is based on what abortionists admit
to, and ignores the fact that the most famous 3rd trimester abortionist,
"Killer" Tiller of Wichita, places the beginning of the 3rd trimester
at the end of the 26th week.

>	Factors accounting for abortions after the first trimester
>include undiagnosed pregnancies (especially among teenagers),
>unforseen tragedy in the woman's life, medical complications, severe
>defects in the fetus, etc. 

The etc. includes abortions for gender selection.  [Query: does chorionic
villi sampling detect gender?  Is chorionic villi sampling widely available
in India?]  Very relevant to India, and to leave it
out is bordering on dishonesty.

> While some of these later abortions could 
>be prevented by better education and health care, it seems clear that
>in some other cases they may be unavoidable for the woman.

"Unavoidable" includes abortions for gender selection since to most
pro-choicers in talk.abortion the will of the woman overrides 
everything else.

>	However, the very few but absolutely late third trimester
>abortions occuring after fetal viabilty are found to invariably
>take place only when the woman's health is at grave risk.

This is completely false.  Tiller's ad for abortions after the 26th
week makes no mention of "grave risk" to the woman's health, but
it does mention fetal deformity.

>	So as it stands under the present system, a large majority
>of the abortions are taking place at the earliest and safest period
>possible and well before fetal viabilty.

Not so.  See below.

>						Gauri.

>p.s. Apparently abortion as a procedure is generally not performed
>before the first 7 weeks of pregnancy.

It would be interesting to know why, given that "menstrual extraction"
can be done as early as the second week, and is the safest abortion
procedure of all.

Peter Nyikos