Thread by @MaureenShaw

(Thread) Tonight, @SenateMajLdr is advancing a vote on a national 20-week abortion ban.

I understand that this strikes a chord with MANY people, especially those who are anti-abortion. To terminate a pregnancy that far along seems barbaric.

But it's often necessary.

Anyone who has been pregnant and who has received proper prenatal care knows that you don't get the anatomy scan until 20 weeks.

This is when serious defects & fetal fatalities are determined, often for the first time during a pregnancy.

Women who are this far along in their pregnancies are, generally speaking, planning to give birth.

They are like Alicia Hupprich, who was thrilled to be pregnant with her second child, only to find out after 20 weeks that her pregnancy was doomed. womenshealthmag.com/health/late-te…

It is a painful decision, as Alicia recounts for @WomensHealthMag: "Ultimately, our greatest concern for our unborn daughter was what her life would look like. We did not want to put our child through a life consisting only of pain." womenshealthmag.com/health/late-te…

Lindsey Paradiso also faced a tough decision: "The tumor was inoperable and overtaking Omara’s heart, lungs, eyes, and brain. She wouldn’t live until birth, much less after. In that moment, it felt like they told us our daughter had already died." self.com/story/23-week-…

"Omara wasn’t going to live, and postponing the inevitable would not only have prolonged her suffering but put my health at risk. The tumor could have threatened my health as it grew, and it also would have been pulling extra blood away from my organs in order to sustain itself."

The *vast* majority of pregnant people who seek abortion care do so before 12 weeks' gestation.

The slim percent who have them later do so out of medical necessity.

guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/ind…

"We would have done anything to save the baby. We asked if there was any possibility for repair, if the brain tissue could regrow. There wasn’t. My baby would either die in the womb or shortly after birth." washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-i…

If legislators actually LISTENED to the women who've had to endure such a grueling decision, they would know 20+ week abortions aren't about flippancy. They are about protecting a mother's health or life, and/or about saving their babies from a life of inescapable pain.

That all said, even if it *was* a late, last-minute decision to simply end a pregnancy because that's what a woman desires, it's still her constitutionally protected right to do so.

Make no mistake: This proposed ban is NOT based on science and it flatly ignores the realities some women face. We can not allow willful ignorance to dictate women's bodily rights. #NoAbortionBan

And WHERE are the supposed pro-lifers when the government refused to reauthorize CHIP? When they wanted to gut maternity healthcare coverage? When the powers that be want to cut SNAP?