Childhood pregnancy is one reason we need abortion option later in pregnancy
Maryland provider sees one child patient per week who needs abortion
Providers at Partners in Abortion Care in Maryland see at least one child between the ages of 10 and 19 per week as part of the care they provide in later pregnancy.
One of the less discussed aspects of that debate is the number of children who need abortions as a result of sexual abuse or through consensual sex with other children. It’s something that politicians seldom discuss as one reason why care in the later stages of pregnancy must remain an option.
Even though it provides needed service to those patients and others, antiabortion activists and leaders have harassed Morgan Nuzzo, an advanced practice clinician nurse-midwife who started the organization a year ago. But she remains undeterred about the people she helps.
“That they can even make it all the way across the country to get to us, I think, is kind of a miracle,” Nuzzo said. “But we do often see people who are young. We see people who get new information about their pregnancy. So, a fetal anomaly, something that they've discovered late in the desired pregnancy. And also new information, like, ‘I didn't know I was pregnant, and now I know,’”
As a result of so many abortion providers closing, it’s more difficult to find information about providers who offer the services Nuzzo does.
“We see people in kind of some of the most dire situations you can imagine seeking care later in pregnancy,” Nuzzo said.
Abortion attitudes toward care provided later in pregnancy may surprise people. I remember speaking to one woman–who supported Donald Trump–who relayed to me that she was a nurse at a local hospital and saw two nine-year-olds get abortions. As a result, she was pro-choice. While many Democratic leaders have tried to shift the focus to the early stages of pregnancy, fewer have been willing to explain or debate the reasons why it should be permitted in later stages as in the laws established in New York state.
The reasoning behind much of the New York law is based on realizing that in a real-world setting, some girl or woman would find themselves in the situation that I described and would have to justify the reasons why she would need an abortion awkwardly. One of the things that Republican leaders, including Nikki Haley, have sought to do is frame the New York law as inhumane when it is anything but that.
Democratic leaders have to be prepared to defend the reasons and rationale behind that law in a national campaign since it’s an obvious point of attack for Republican operatives who want to shift opinion on their side by distorting legal reasoning.
The wait time at Nuzzo’s clinic is about a week or two now.
“It doesn't happen overnight,” Nuzzo said. “But it's a process, it took a lot of people working very hard, sometimes even volunteers, to try and get those resources together for patients so they can travel to us.”