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In the abortion debate, Republicans have long claimed that Democrats support abortion without limit. During a Trump rally in his state, Arizona Republican and U.S. Senate hopeful Blake Masters deployed a version of this barb against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. He voted to legalize abortion up until the moment of birth, Masters said July 22 . Arizona’s primary election is Aug. 2, and polling puts Masters in the lead for the Republican nomination. Masters’ campaign told us he was referring to Kelly’s vote for the Women’s Health Protection Act . The legislation, which Kelly also co-sponsored, mandates abortion on-demand until the moment of birth as federal law, said Masters campaign adviser Katie Miller. It also removes nearly all existing state-level guardrails around abortion. Masters’ claim fails to align with the facts for several reasons, most of them rooted in his focus on the very end of a full-term pregnancy. Not ‘abortion on demand’ In a May 2022 vote — before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — Kelly backed the Women's Health Protection Act as a way to affirm the legal right to an abortion. It barred states from passing laws that prohibited abortion after fetal viability when a provider determines the pregnancy risks the patient's life or health. The bill failed on a 46-48 vote. Contrary to what Master’s campaign said, the bill’s text does not mandate abortion on demand until the moment of birth. The woman would play a key role in any decision, but a plain reading of the text places equal responsibility in the hands of the physician. That fails to meet the commonly used definition of abortion on demand. ‘On demand’ means whenever I want, for whatever reason, or no reason, said Drexel University law professor David Cohen. Requiring the provider’s agreement to the procedure is the polar opposite, Cohen said. Rare and severe health crises Dr. Nisha Verma is a fellow at the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a practicing OB-GYN in Delaware. Verma said that Masters’ claim is based on the false premise that pregnancies are being aborted in the very final weeks in the absence of a lethal fetal anomaly, or a health crisis. Generally, women who carry a pregnancy to that point, she said, want to keep their babies. I have cared for people who do receive terrible fetal diagnoses, Verma said. For example, that their baby has not developed a brain and will not survive after birth, or who face life-threatening medical conditions and who need abortions in the third trimester. Verma said these situations are rare. At the national level, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks abortions by the weeks of gestation. Terminations that take place at 21 weeks or later account for about 1% of all abortions. Arizona’s department of health services doesn’t have this data on its website, but slightly more granular information can be found in Texas. Texas data shows abortions that occur at 26 weeks or later. From 2008 through 2021, those represented about 0.01% of abortions. Verma emphasized that when the woman faces a health crisis, abortion is far from the first option. I counsel my patients about the options, and in many situations, based on my patient's wishes, proceed with an induction of labor or C-section that aims to protect both the patient and the baby, Verma said. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology sees signs that fear of strict abortion penalties has pushed doctors to delay medical treatment for pregnancies with severe complications. Laws already allow abortion in a medical crisis The Women’s Health Protection Act can’t legalize something that is already legal. There are health exceptions in state abortion laws, and civil liability laws support medical intervention in grievous circumstances. Teresa Collett, law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, has argued in favor of abortion restrictions and served on the Roman Catholic Pontifical Council for the Family. Every state has an emergency exception in their general civil liability laws, and every state law limiting abortion to certain gestational ages or methods has a more specific emergency exception, Collett said. A century of civil liability legislation has given doctors a legal responsibility to give the best possible care. It is a complex legal framework, hugely driven by the facts of each individual situation. Maxwell Mehlman, law professor and co-director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said that generally, in these settings, physicians must intervene. The doctor has a legal duty to take reasonable steps to preserve the life and health of the patient, Mehlman said. If they don’t, in the most egregious situations, this has led to criminal prosecutions. Anti-abortion laws complicate this legal guidance, Mehlman said. Even with an exception for the life and health of the woman, they create a legal hazard for hospitals and doctors. Under liability law, providers should intervene. Under a state’s abortion statute, they could face criminal sanctions. The doctor is between a rock and a hard place, Mehlman said. The bill Kelly supported would did not have changed how current laws would apply to abortions in the final weeks of pregnancy. But it would have prohibited states from criminalizing abortions. Lack of examples of non-health-related abortions Abortion opponents say that under the Women’s Health Protection Act, the definition of the patient's life or health is vague. Collett at the University of St. Thomas said past court rulings on abortion show how broadly those terms could apply. The health exception, without any statutory qualification, includes psychological health and other non-physical aspects including age and familial status, Collett said. Such a broad interpretation is probable given the rules of interpretation contained in the Women’s Health Protection Act. In theory, the bill could allow an abortion that is not strictly because of physical health. The question is, do such cases exist? We did not find data on abortions taking place very late in pregnancy in the absence of a physical, medical crisis. We asked Collett whether she knew of an instance when a non-health issue has led to an abortion so late in pregnancy. She said she did not. We asked the National Right to Life Committee for the same information. They pointed to testimony in the mid-1990s from a doctor who performed abortions. The doctor said pregnancies after 26 weeks were interrupted because of maternal risk, rape, incest, psychiatric or pediatric indications. The last term applied to teenage pregnancies. The committee’s press office said that reasons such as psychiatric and teenage pregnancies are evidence that a broad definition of health would apply to the Women’s Health Protection Act. But when we asked for an example of an abortion taking place in the final weeks for anything other than a clear medical crisis, the committee provided none. Masters’ claim presented a legal conundrum for which there’s no evidence. Additionally, the testimony from the mid-1990s covered a different time span than the final weeks of pregnancy that Masters spoke about. Our ruling Masters said that Kelly voted to legalize abortion up until the moment of birth. Kelly voted for the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have prohibited states from banning abortion of a viable fetus when the life and health of the woman are at risk. It also would have prevented the criminalization of abortions. Abortion in the last weeks of pregnancy are exceedingly rare. Abortion opponents we reached cited no example where abortions ocurred so late without a clear medical reason. Also, state civil liability laws — in place to ensure medical providers give patients the best treatment possible — already permit abortions in certain medical circumstances. The bill Kelly supported did not change that. We rate this claim Mostly False. RELATED: Fact-checking Pence’s claim on Democrats and abortion ‘up to the moment of birth’ RELATED: Do Democrats support abortion up until (and after) birth? RELATED: Anti-abortion group exaggerates how states regulate late-term abortions
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