Arizona’s Ban At 20 Weeks Shows Country’s Shift On Abortion Law

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-26/arizona-s-ban-at-20-weeks-shows-country-s-shift-on-abortion-law.html

Jennifer Hercegovac and her husband picked out a name, set up a nursery and sold her business so she could be a stay-at-home mother. Then, when she was 18 weeks pregnant, an ultrasound detected fetal heart defects.

At first, she thought her son could still grow up to play football after surgeries. Further tests last month, at 22 weeks, detected DiGeorge Syndrome, a chromosome disorder that with the heart defects made the survival of her fetus beyond a few months unlikely, she said. She scheduled an abortion the next day -- an option other women in Arizona won’t have under a law set to go into effect next week.

“You are attached to the baby, you love the baby, but to give birth to a baby that you know is going to suffer and pass away?” Hercegovac, 38, of New River, said in a telephone interview as her sons, ages 2 and 3, drummed on cooking pots in the background. “This seemed more humane.”

Arizona is one of nine states in the past two years to ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy -- around the time women commonly get ultrasounds to screen for fetal anomalies. Abortion-rights advocates were in federal court in Phoenix yesterday seeking a preliminary injunction against the law.