I do know a female hard core anti-abortionist who refused to have an abortion for an ecoptic pregnancy because she didn’t want to kill her "baby"a/k/a eight week old fetus. She didn’t die, but she is now sterile. She kept insisting that the doctors were wrong and “God will save my baby.”
Some people who are strongly against abortion see that issue as a sort of trick question to make them concede that it is justifiable to take a life (as they see it) in some circumstances, thus collapsing their argument.
Certainly in countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and a couple of others where abortion is illegal under any circumstances, any hint of an attempt to relax the law to allow exceptions like danger to the mother’s life and cases of rape and incest is met with mass protests led by the Catholic Church, and all candidates for public office feel compelled to come out strongly against abortion, no matter what their personal views are on the subject.
I’m not sure that the people in favour of reform are in the majority, but apart from a few brave campaigners and doctors most people are definitely intimidated into keeping silent.
ruadh- FWIW abortions are performed in the North for foetal abnormality and maternal health (physical and mental). The fact that the doctors who perform them are working in a massive legal grey area is a major problem.
Without legislation like the UK’s 1967 abortion act, or Ireland’s total ban except life of the mother, doctors in Northern Ireland are basically winging it and hoping to hell nothing bad happens. Personally, I hope the 1967 Abortion Act is extended here, but I doubt it will be.
In my 4 months O&G in Northern Ireland we had about 8 abortions in the hospital I worked in, which were for various reasons (as well as treating multiple ectopics). In my 4 months in psych last year I was asked to see a woman to assess whether I felt her mental health would be at such risk that an abortion in Northern Ireland could be justified. So, while most women take the easier, legal, expensive option of traveling to England or Scotland for a private, legal abortion, there are some who manage to have their abortions here.
I doubt it will be either, but it doesn’t really matter. When justice is finally devolved Stormont will be able to overturn any abortion law anyway.
McCain does not oppose an exception for when the life of the mother is endangered. He opposes the inclusion of an exception for “health” of the mother. Pre-Roe, many states allowed abortions for life/health exceptions, and “health” became stretched to include “mental health”, a subjective loophole by which some doctors gave abortion referrals to any patient who wanted one. Since then, abortion legislation has sometimes modified the phrase “life or health” to “life or physical health”.
Anyway — to answer your question, NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll taken in September 2008 found 10% of Americans thought abortion should be illegal without exception, and 37% thought it should be illegal with a few exceptions.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll in August 2008 found 18% of Americans thought abortion should be illegal in all cases, and 26% thought it should be illegal in most cases.
A FOX News/Opinion Dynamics poll in October 2007 got more specific. 15% of Americans thought abortion should be illegal even if the pregnancy puts the mother’s life at risk, while 28% thought it should be illegal even if it put the mother’s mental health at risk.
It’s not a loophole. It’s a recognised principle of international human rights law that “health” includes mental health.