I'm pro early abortion and implacably against late-term - infanticide. Question for you: Instead of

You would outlaw second- and third-trimester abortions - with no exceptions...

for fetal anomalies, health of the mother, rape or incest, e.g.?  

I had an abortion at just a little over 12 weeks, with none of the above issues, so I guess I would have been out of luck under your restrictions.  I don't think there should be any restrictions up through the second-trimester, just as there originally weren't after Roe v. Wade.

The more and more restrictive things become, with some states having only 1 clinic or not many more than that at this point, later and later abortions are going to ironically increase in number due to the lack of easily available resources geographically, as well as increased financial and screening burdens.  Similar to the backfiring effect of not promoting more easily available birth control (which would obviously decrease the number of abortions), anti-choice activists' and politicians' actions and legislative efforts towards abortion restriction will end up causing more later abortions than if resources had been more accessible.  Not saying that's your agenda, "Instead of," hopefully you would want more accessible birth control and clinics in order to achieve your aims.  I still can't agree with you, however, even though I'm not "pro-abortion."  I am pro-choice but would certainly like to see abortion rates decrease, which they have been with increased birth control and education, etc., but  I'm afraid we may see the downward trend start to reverse again and/or a return to more unhealthy, back alley abortions with the continued war on women.  

If pro-life people really wanted there to be less abortions, they’d spend more time lobbying for free high-quality birth control and less time in front of abortion clinics.

http://fullymyelinated.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/more-free-birth-control-less-abortion/

What are the reasons that women seek late term abortions? Is it just casual whim or is it serious medical conditions and the safety of the mother and fetus or perhaps something else?

  There are no widely recognized data on why women seek late term abortions because they are not required to report the reason they seek the abortion on medical documentation. Besides just medical reasons such as the compromised health of the mother or fetus, the Guttmacher institute lists the following as reasons that women cited for abortions according to their research:

 The reasons women give for having an abortion underscore their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

  Most states leave it up to the physician to determine if a situation meets the critiera for a late term abortion such as: preserving the life and health (physical and mental) of the mother or if the infant would not otherwise be viable. So one should realize according to this criteria and the strict legal restrictions on late term abortions that there are probably extremely few cases in which a woman wakes up one day in her 24th week of pregnancy and decides to get an abortion especially considering that it is a painful surgical procedure.

   According to the highly respected, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), most late term abortions are not on whim and in fact: 

"Women who have late abortions often are disadvantaged. Teenagers, especially those younger than 15 years, and women of minority status disproportionately have late abortions.3 Many of these patients either do not suspect the pregnancy or attempt to conceal it until the pregnancy becomes evident. Menstrual irregularity is an important risk factor.10 Women with irregular menses often discover late that they are pregnant. Other risk factors include young age, low educational attainment, having had a sexually transmitted disease, and ambivalence about the decision to abort.11 Thus, many of the factors associated with late abortions are not easily changed.

Women seeking late abortions are often disadvantaged in other ways, such as lack of knowledge about options, lack of money to pay for the procedure, lack of transportation to a provider, and alcohol or other drug dependence. Some young women are unaware of the availability of late abortions. Since enactment of the Hyde Amendment, the federal government has not paid for indigent women to have abortions, and few states subsidize abortion services. Hence, some women need weeks to raise the money to pay for an abortion, which delays the procedure until the second trimester. Of note, states that fund abortions have significantly lower rates of teen pregnancy, low-birth-weight babies, premature births, and births with late or no prenatal care than do other states.

Geography poses yet another barrier: more than 80% of US counties do not have an abortion provider. Providers of late abortion are even more scarce. In 1993, only 13% of US abortion providers offered abortions at 21 weeks, and the cost averaged more than $1000.12"

Furthermore, there are many health related reasons cited by this JAMA article as to why a woman would need a late term abortion:

Late abortions are fundamentally important to women’s reproductive health.1 Antenatal fetal diagnosis, such as maternal {alpha}-fetoprotein screening and amniocentesis, is predicated on the availability of induced abortion. Although techniques such as chorionic villus sampling and early amniocentesis have allowed earlier diagnosis, by the time results of midtrimester amniocentesis or ultrasound are available, a woman may be beyond 20 weeks’ gestation.13

Illnesses of women and fetal anomalies lead to requests for late abortions. Late abortion can be lifesaving for women with medical disorders aggravated by pregnancy.17 Conditions such as Eisenmenger syndrome carry a high risk of maternal morbidity and mortality in pregnancy, the latter ranging from 20% to 30%.18 In recent years, I have performed late abortions for a Kampuchean refugee with craniopagus conjoined twins and a 25-year-old woman with a 9 x 15-cm thoracic aortic aneurysm from newly diagnosed Marfan syndrome. Cancer sometimes makes late abortion necessary. For example, either radical hysterectomy or radiation therapy for cervical cancer before fetal viability involves abortion.

Incest and rape are other compelling indications. Pregnancies resulting from incest among young teenagers or among women with mental handicaps may escape detection until the pregnancy is advanced. Approximately 32000 pregnancies result from rape each year in the United States; about half of rape victims receive no medical attention, and about one third do not discover the pregnancy until the second trimester.19

GIven that some healthy women with health fetuses, would get an elective, abortion (for a reason unrelated to health), should we still make late term abortion legal?

Yes.  One could argue that just having the legal option of a late term elective abortion is important to protect those women who may not have an explicit physical or mental reason/ fetal viability issue but still because of trauma, youth or poverty simply not carry a pregnancy to term. In this case we must also think, what are our other options….unsafe abortion by amatuers rather than physicians. History has shown that we will not deter women from attempting abortion. Whose life is worth more-(1) the mother who has to choose between being forced to carry an  unintended pregnancy  to term or choose an unsafe abortion that she may die from — or (2) the aborted fetus who never had a chance to live? Whose choice is this to make-society/the state or each individual women who is ultimately the one affected by this choice? Do we believe that a woman should have the power to have input on what occurs in her own body and in her own life and does this right extend to the fetus that is apart of her body?

I think the JAMA article summarized this quite nicely in its conclusions: 

… "The three leading principles of bioethics—respect for persons, beneficence and justice—together provide an ethical mandate for guaranteeing to women throughout the world a legal right to safe abortion." This mandate is especially important for the immature, disadvantaged, and often seriously ill women requesting late abortions in the United States. Regardless of political views on abortion, the scientific evidence is clear and incontrovertible: legal abortion, including late abortion, has been a resounding public health success.

Early abortion is safer, simpler, and less controversial than late abortion. Improving sex education, promoting access to safe and effective contraception, and removing economic and geographic barriers to early abortion can help to reduce the number of late abortions. This is a goal around which there should be broad consensus. Nevertheless, as experience has revealed, the need for late abortion will not disappear. Hence, our continuing responsibility as physicians and as a society is to ensure that these procedures are as safe, comfortable, and compassionate as possible. Women deserve no less from their physicians.

http://amplifyyourvoice.org/u/vanessaaishacoleman/2009/06/01/late-term-abortions

NOPE. Humane exceptions on a case by case - basis. No dead moms, tortured or brainless babies,

Who would be the decider/s for the case by case decisions? - pro-choice

I was talking to OP, so keeping it simple. But - we've had this discussion before. NM.

I apparently missed that. If you're not interested in rehashing it, that's fine. - That I can understand.

I won't politely acquiesce to anyone who would desire to curtail my or my daughter's reproductive rights even the teensiest bit, and anyone who does desire more limitation in that regard is certainly not on the same side as me ... only those who hope to see the need for abortion decrease in a totally pro-choice way.

Never met someone who is pro-late term abortion. - Sorry. nm

I know no one who is "pro" abortion. - nm

hmmmm....one who has made it their option of choice? - nm

"Option of choice" - NK

Oh, someone forced them to have it? - nm

choice - NK

Sounds nice, Sorry, but many late-term babies - have been "aborted," right up to

I have a question... - curious

well... they'd probably be dead - boot Hussein straps

Paul Ryan answered during the campaign, something - like, the law would be the law.

So no responses from the anti-choicers? - inquisitive

It's not a requirement that we answer - In addition - sm

Nobody said you HAD to answer. I was just curious. - chillout (nm)

I'm not saying you have to get on board, but you should know... - SM

Anti-abortioners, it's okay to be speak up honestly. - What penalty should a woman who kills

Please don't just hit "dislike" for being asked to - contribute your thoughts. This is anonymous.

Yes, - I would.

Thanks for answering. So, let's discuss. Premeditated murder - by a 33-year-old who found she was

Assuming she lives in a state that has the death penalty, - I would not agree to that.

I disagree with your anti-choice stance, but I respect that you are against - the death penalty as well.

Thank you - we can agree on some - things :) (nm)

It's like religion for me. I'm an atheist, almost anti-theist, - but I do respect and admire those...

who manage to practice their religions non-hypocritically.  Over my lifetime, though, the number I've met personally who I could say that about is no more than I can count on both hands, which is sad indeed.  (Baha'is and Quakers have been the largest of those in number that I've known and the highest degree of genuineness.)

Before anybody complains that this isn't about politics, I'm just using it as an analogy to more fully clarify my above post.  I really don't see the problem with veering a little bit off topic anyway, but your mileage may vary.