Anti-abortion group exaggerates how states regulate late-term abortions

Focus on the Family cheered the toppling of Roe v. Wade, declaring the Supreme Court’s decision "the most consequential legal ruling of our lifetime."

Several days later, the evangelical Christian group bought ads on Facebook and Instagram warning about late-term abortions in several states where the procedure remains legal. 

One ad claimed: 

"Did you know that abortion is available all nine months of pregnancy in New Mexico — even up until the moment before birth and for any reason?"

Besides New Mexico, ads with the same text singled out Oregon, Alaska, Vermont and New Jersey. The ads urged viewers to sign online petitions against the "extreme abortion law" in each state.

Earlier Focus on the Family ads claimed that Colorado’s law "allows for abortion at any point of pregnancy — right up to delivery, no questions asked!"

Laws in those six states, as well as in the District of Columbia, do not explicitly prohibit an abortion from being performed at any stage of pregnancy.

But abortions later in pregnancy are rare, and are generally not being done "up until the moment before birth and for any reason." 

These abortions are performed on a case-by-case basis when there are maternal or fetal complications, said Laurie Sobel, associate director of women’s health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, an authority on heath care information. 

"People cannot opt for an abortion instead of child birth when they are full term," she said.

The overall number of abortions done each year in the United States is difficult to peg.

The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization, contacts abortion providers and uses other data to make estimates every three years. The group estimated in its latest report that there were 930,160 abortions in 2020, an increase of 8% from 2017. 

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest count, published last November, that there were 629,898 abortions in 2019, up 2% from 2018. That’s based on reports by health agencies, though a few states, including California, did not report. 

The vast majority of abortions are performed early in pregnancy, according to the CDC report. Nearly 93% of abortions in 2019 were done during the first trimester, at or before 13 weeks gestation, and about 6% occurred between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Less than 1% were performed at 21 weeks or later.

A CDC spokesperson said the agency does not have more detailed statistics on abortions performed at or after 21 weeks.

When PolitiFact asked Focus on the Family to back up its claims, a spokesperson referred us to a WorldPopulationReview.com article. The article said the District of Columbia and seven states "allow for late-term abortions with no state-imposed thresholds." (The Focus on the Family ads focused on six states, not including New Hampshire.)

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"Thresholds" was a reference to how late in a pregnancy an abortion could be performed.

We reviewed research from Guttmacher and KFF and found that in New Hampshire, as part of the state budget that took effect Jan. 1, abortion is generally banned after 24 weeks. 

Abortion is not prohibited at a specific gestational age before fetal viability in the District of Columbia and in the other six states cited in the article. However, these abortions are rare in each state. 

Here are their regulations and a look at how often abortions are done at or after 21 weeks, which is one marker the CDC and states use in reporting on abortions:

Alaska: There is no law permitting or banning abortion, meaning it likely will remain legal there, at least in the immediate future. The Alaska Supreme Court recognized the right to abortion under the state constitution. Two of the 1,226 abortions (0.2%) performed in Alaska in 2021 were done at or after 21 weeks, according to the state.

Colorado: The state passed a law in 2022 directly allowing access to abortions. An anti-abortion activist falsely claimed that the law was "legalizing abortions through all nine months, up until the moment of birth." In 2021, 1.5% of abortions in Colorado were done at or after 21 weeks, according to the state.

New Jersey: The state passed a law in 2022 directly allowing access to abortions. Even though the law does not prohibit abortions at any stage of pregnancy, New Jersey’s providers do not perform them after 24 to 26 weeks, Dr. Glenmarie Matthews, director of the Reproductive Choice Program at New Jersey Medical School, told PolitiFact.

Any procedure near the end of pregnancy, she added, would be induced labor, not an abortion. "No one’s doing that. It doesn't exist. People are just using their wild imaginations," she said. 

New Mexico: The state has no law permitting or banning abortion, meaning it likely will remain legal there, at least in the immediate future. The latest state figures show that in 2019, 1.8% of abortions were done at 21 weeks or after. University of New Mexico Health offers first- and second-trimester (after 14 weeks) abortions. It does not provide third-trimester abortions, a spokesperson said. 

Oregon: The state passed a law in 2017 directly allowing access to abortions. In 2020, about 1.57% of abortions were performed at or after 21 weeks, according to the state’s latest figures. An anti-abortion group said following the Roe reversal that it plans to bring a bill to Oregon lawmakers to ban abortion later in pregnancy. 

Vermont: The state passed a law in 2019 directly allowing access to abortions. The latest available state data shows that 1.5% of the abortions performed in 2019 occurred at or after 21 weeks.

No providers in Vermont perform elective abortions after 22 weeks, Stephanie Winters, deputy director of the Vermont Medical Society, told PolitiFact. When these abortions are done, "it is not because of an unwanted pregnancy, these are medical reasons," she said.

Focus on the Family said in ads that abortion "is available all nine months of pregnancy" in Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont, "even up until the moment before birth and for any reason."

Under laws in those six states, abortion is not specifically prohibited at any stage of pregnancy.

But late-term abortions are rare and usually for urgent medical reasons. Nationally, less than 1% of abortions are performed at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy, and they are roughly as rare in the states where there is no time prohibition on abortion.

Near full term, contrary to what the ads suggest, abortions are not done, experts say.

The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.

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