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I'm confused about there being exactly five (at the time) providers of late-term abortions. I get that red states made all sorts of restrictive laws falling just short of bans post-Roe and pre-Dobbs and are rife with anti-abortion terrorism, but I had assumed that in blue states there was relatively little legal or cultural opposition to abortions of any term. Why wouldn't abortion providers of all sorts in those states perform abortions at any trimester?

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Nov 3Liked by Ozy Brennan

I’m not an expert so don’t take this as gospel but:

* there is not _that_ much demand for late-term abortions

* late-term abortions are a significantly different procedure from earlier, so the skills and equipment don’t transfer

* even in a location where it’s generally accepted, it only takes a few motivated individuals to seriously disrupt your operation

* places where it’s legal typically still have restrictions after ~24 weeks

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The increased difficulty of the procedure and non-transferrable skills do help me make sense of it. I guess I don't fully understand all the incentives present, because even with the reasons you listed I would expect there would be one provider in every solid blue state.

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"Tiller wore a bulletproof vest while at work."

There's a statement that provokes a double-take. I knew abortion doctors were protested against, knew that sometimes this turned violent. Did not know it was bad enough to necessitate a bulletproof vest INSIDE the workplace.

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