Stop Killing the DefenselessIn most states in our country, abortion is now illegal when the fetus becomes a viable human being, meaning that it can survive outside the womb. This is often called a late-term abortion, and usually occurs between the 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy. One of the problems with banning late-term abortions in the United States is that viability is not defined. In other words, there is no defined week of gestation during which a fetus is considered viable. Late-term abortions are performed for several reasons: sometimes the woman did not know she was pregnant until the third trimester, some fetal abnormalities cannot be detected until late in pregnancy, a mother may become too ill to carry her baby to term or sometimes she It is simply a choice that the woman can make and that, for one reason or another, she does not want to continue her pregnancy. Although, according to Susan Dwyer, professor of philosophy and author of numerous works, late-term or third-trimester abortions “account for less than one percent of all terminated pregnancies in the United States, or about six hundred per year.” (56), the process In case of late-term abortion, the emotional and physical pain felt by the mother and the pain felt by the baby are completely inhumane and should be completely prohibited. Third-trimester or late-term abortions are usually procedures that last two to three days. The abortion itself is performed on the second or third day, once the cervix has dilated enough to ensure that the fetus can be safely extracted or expelled. In most cases, fetal death occurs on the first day of insertion of the laminaria, which are "a cone of dried algae that swells as it absorbs water and thus dilates the cervix non-traumatically by preparation for induced abortion or induced labor” (Dwyer 89). The medications used during this procedure are digoxin and lidocaine, which are inserted directly into the uterus. Once dilation is complete, late-term abortions typically last two to four hours and are performed under IV sedation or general anesthesia. However, some babies do not die before the abortion begins. Registered nurse Brenda Shafer recounts one particular abortion in which the doctor "delivered the baby's body and arms - everything except the head. The doctor kept the baby's head just inside the uterus. The baby's little fingers were gripping and releasing, and his feet were kicking.