15 Weeks

Today Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a ban on abortions past 15 weeks in the state of Florida. Online, people are flipping out over this, calling him "a monster" who is "trying to control women's bodies." The general feeling among Democrats is that an abortion at 15 weeks is so early, it's hardly a death at all, and that women should be allowed to kill the fetus growing inside them for many weeks after that. 

(Spoiler: Normally I don't divulge anything very personal in this space but now I have to.) In 1973, married and on birth control, I became pregnant and did not realize it until a few months had passed. Since my then-husband did not want children, I made an appointment for an abortion at the Washington, D.C. office of Planned Parenthood. 

After being prepped by a nurse, the doctor arrived and was examining me when he started yelling, "Get out of here! Go home! You have a baby in there! Are you trying to trap me?" I can still hear his frantic voice in my head to this day. Then he stormed out of the room. 

Naturally I was stunned and confused. Eventually a staff member came in to apologize and tell me that I was too far along and that they could only do the procedure up to 12 weeks, and the doctor had determined that I was a couple of weeks beyond that.

The illustration above shows a fetus at 15-weeks. I now can understand that doctor's extreme reaction -- it sure looks like a person to me, as it did to him back then. 

How far we have fallen as a society!