LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
GOVT215
Newspaper Opinion Editorial Critique Assignment
By Megan Stumpner
October 6, 2024
Summary of Article
I came across the article “What Do Liberals Believe About Late-Term Abortion” by Ross Douthat.
The article talks about late-term abortions and what liberals think about it. Abortions is a
sensitive topic and has been debated for a long time in the United States. Late term abortions
are still up for discussion. Daut states the phrase “late-term” itself is contested and he talks
about abortions that take place around the potential fetal viability, which is somewhere in the
range of
22 weeks (about five months) to 25 weeks (about five and a half months) of pregnancy
(Douthat, What do liberals believe about late-term abortion? 2024). One of the liberal position
on postviability abortions is that liberals say there are no different morally or legally from pre-
viability abortions. This liberal position is held by Democratic politicians who are against the
legal restrictions on both second and third-trimester abortions. The legislative majority in blue
states to abortion rights with no limitations. From people that support pro-choice side the
cognitive dissonance about late-term abortion serves to prevent any kind of moderating move,
putting obfuscation in the service of absolutism and using incoherence to sustain the most
radical position possible. The article talks about the arguments between Former president
trump and
Vice president Harris during their election campaign.
Fallacy
The only fallacy I found in the article is when Ross Douthat states the phrase “late-term” itself is
contested. Still, for this discussion, I am talking about abortions that take place around or
beyond the threshold of potential fetal viability, which currently sits somewhere in the gestation
of 22 weeks (about five months) to 25 weeks (about five and a half months) of pregnancy.
According to Holly at Planned Parenthood, "Late-term abortion” is not a thing, except in the
imaginations of anti-abortion rights activists. Abortion is health care, and health care is
personal. People deserve to oversee their own medical decisions throughout their pregnancy.
Lawmakers who care more about control than health or personal freedom do not deserve to
make those decisions for you or anybody else. Democratic politicians will take full ownership of
this position’s implications.
“That’s not true,” Harris insisted in the presidential debate when Donald Trump argued that the
Roe v. Wade framework that Democrats say they want restored allowed for abortions in the
third trimester of pregnancy
Overall, the article was written well, and interesting. Abortion has been a debated topic
for many years. I believe that they should have used more facts that could make the article
have a stronger argument on why the liberals want to make long-term abortions legal. It could
have also used the abortion cases like the one that overruled Roe vs Wade. They could have
talked about what other liberal presidents' thoughts about long term abortions.
Bibliography
Douthat, R. (2024, October 11). What do liberals believe about late-term abortion?. The New
York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/opinion/harris-walz-
trumpabortion.html
Ivette Gomez, A. S. (2024, July 23). Abortions later in pregnancy in a Post-Dobbs era. KFF.
https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/abortions-later-in-pregnancy-in-apost-
dobbs-era/
There’s no such thing as a “late-term abortion.” (n.d.).
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/blog/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-late-term-abortion
