More often than not, these women have a strong support network behind them and they appear to me to have a good sense of their own capabilities and limitations. The biggest problem facing women wanting or needing abortion services is accessibility. Now I know it looks like exhausted women who travel from Idaho, Alaska, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, even Canada, in search of services. It looks like desperate women who must sell precious and needed belongings, borrow and beg from friends and family to finance their journeys and procedure costs. It looks like frightened women who must travel alone to have their abortions among strangers and away from loved ones who support and nurture them.
Women choosing abortions later in pregnancy are just like women who choose abortion earlier.
They are no more irresponsible, selfish, victimized or immature than any other women, pregnant or not. Intuitively, I think most of us realize that matters of sex, consent, age, family, death and money are never easy and abortion is or can be about all of these. This reluctance to explore the gray areas of abortion can heighten the crisis an unintended pregnancy can create. At this point, there are no absolute answers - science and law cannot tell us when life begins. It is up to each woman to decide for herself what she believes in, how she will live out those beliefs, and who she will involve in her decision.