I went to a catholic high school where we were required to take religion classes each year, and three of those years were based on Catholic beliefs. I was taught abortions are bad, no matter what. I remember raising my hand and asking my freshman religion teacher, “But what if the mother is about to die, and the choice comes down to either losing the baby or losing them both?”
I was shocked when I was told it was immoral to take just the baby’s life, and it is moral to let both lives die instead. With a bad taste in my mouth and not knowing any better, I believed what I was told was right and moved on. That is, until I came to college.
Here, I realized I honestly am unsure of the exact moment a life begins. I realized I have never been in the position of not knowing where to go or what to do—feeling like I only had this one choice. 
I never had to choose between a challenging life of motherhood or a promising future with a lifetime of free choices to make. But the new abortion law passed in New York gives women the chance to have a third option—simply a future. 
According to Caitlin O’Kane for CBS News, the state passed a law allowing late-term abortions if a woman’s health is endangered or if there is absence of fetal viability—as opposed to its previous law allowing these abortions only if the mother’s life was at risk.
Michelle Ye Hee Lee reported for The Washington Post at 24 weeks, doctors can determine fetus viability. Essentially, doctors are seeing if a baby can make it full term, or even survive as a premature baby.
Now, most abortions occur in the first trimester, and only 1.2 percent of abortions take place after the 21-week mark according to Planned Parenthood. At 24 weeks, a baby is roughly the size of a cantaloupe and the mother is definitely showing, having already gained about 16 pounds according to Deborah Cicurel for Mother and Baby. 
At this point, women have decided to reach full term and have their babies—an abortion this late in the pregnancy is not a mere choice. Women determine whether to abort before they begin to show, and they would be showing by 24 weeks. Need I remind you, the law states an abortion is an option at this point only if the mother’s health is at risk. 
This bill also protects medical professionals and doctors from criminal prosecution, no longer criminalizing abortions. As Tony Marco reported for CNN, ”The old law had criminal penalties. It was written that the doctor or professional could be held criminally liable,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a catholic, I might add.
Bottom line, to everyone who is freaking out that a whole state is letting babies be killed willy-nilly at the hands of a hormonal woman—cool it. These abortions will not occur on a whim, and these will only be offered based on specific circumstances. 
I do not think abortion should ever be used as a form of birth control, and I think outside measures should be taken against pregnancies that are currently unwanted. But again, with this bill, these late-term abortions are not being used as, “Oh no, what do I do now?” measures. These are offered for women whose health is in danger or whose baby likely will not survive.
Ask yourself what you would do if you were in this position. I know for a fact, I have no idea what I would do if a doctor told me I had to choose whether I would die or live at the hands of my unborn child. These are massive questions women must decide, and that is the beauty of this new law—the women get to choose. This takes a woman’s destiny, and places it back in her hands where it belongs.
If you think late-term abortions are immoral no matter what, are you really willing to say two lives should be lost when one could have been saved?  If so, I am dying to see the pillow your grandma cross-stitched from which you learned this moral gem.