Right-wing media are flat-out lying about later abortions being “infanticide”

After Democratic lawmakers moved to protect abortion rights in New York, Virginia, and Rhode Island, right-wing media responded with a flurry of inaccurate allegations that their efforts promoted “infanticide.”

Despite the right-wing media’s portrayal, these bills do not allow “infanticide.” As Forbes’ Tara Haelle explained in 2016, people who need later abortions “are seeking them before a pregnancy reaches full term but often and unfortunately after they have discovered in the second or third trimester some problem with the fetus or danger to the mother.” Later abortions, although often medically necessary, are extremely rare: Slightly more than 1 percent of all abortions are performed past the 21-week mark.

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