[Special] Editorial: Donald Trump Explores The Mysteries of Pregnancy at the Third Debate

The third and final debate on October 19 was something else. The biggest headline was Trump's refusal to accept the results of the election, which I am sure I'll share here at some point. If you cannot wait, you can always review the Washington Post's third debate recap.

Despite this being Trump's best presidential debate performance (in my opinion), he still managed to litter the stage with examples of projecting his own insecurities and displaying his total incompetence. For now, we'll focus on his abortion comments.

From NPR's October 19, 2016, full transcript and fact check:


CHRIS WALLACE

Mr. Trump your reaction and particularly on this issue of life term partial-birth abortion.

Trump’s views on this have changed with time. In a 1999 interview, Trump said that he “hates abortion” but that he didn’t want to ban late abortion.

Danielle KurtzlebenNPR Politics Reporter

DONALD TRUMP

I think it's terrible if you go with what Hillary is saying in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby. Now you can say that that's okay and Hillary can say that that's okay, but it's not okay with me. Because based on what she's saying and based on where she's going and where she's been, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb on the ninth month on the final day. And that's not acceptable.

Very few of the millions of abortions performed each year involve dilation and extraction, which is called "partial-birth abortion" by opponents. These are abortions performed after 20 weeks. It would be extremely unusual, if it is done at all, for this kind of abortion to be done only a few days before a nine-month term is reached. Very few providers in the country still perform D&X; abortions. For more background on this type of abortion, click here.

Joe NeelNPR Science Desk Editor and Correspondent

From the Washington Post's own fact check article of October 20, here is Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee explaining Trump's inaccuracies:

Trump asserted that abortions can take place just one day before birth. This doesn’t really happen.

Most abortions take place early in the pregnancy. One-third take place at six weeks of pregnancy or earlier; 89 percent occur in the first 12 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. Only 1.2 percent of abortions — about 12,000 a year — take place after 21 weeks. (The Supreme Court has held that states may not prohibit abortions “necessary to preserve the life or health” of the mother.)

On top of that, Guttmacher says that 43 states already prohibit some abortions after a certain point in pregnancy, such as fetal viability, in the third trimester or after a certain number of weeks. So this is already a rare procedure that is prohibited in much of the country. In fact, there are only four doctors left in the United States who are even willing to perform third trimester abortions.

At the end of the day, Trump seems to be clueless about women's body. We can surmise that he at least knows how to make a baby, you know, after the pussy grab.