Why women get late-term abortions, and how we all force them to.

Reality check.

You are a woman working 60 hours a week between two jobs to provide for your two young children.  You make about $400 a week, but have almost nothing left between child care, rent, food, gas for the car.

You get pregnant and find out 7 weeks into your pregnancy.  The clock starts now.  In your state, you have 13 weeks (91 days) to come up with $1000 to pay for the abortion you need in order to keep the jobs that keep your family fed and housed.

Maybe add another part-time job?  An extra 10 hours on top of the 60 you are already doing?  That would bring in $72 a week, which will still leave you $100 short by the time you hit the deadline.  Besides, who would watch the kids?  You are already exhausted on your one day off as it is.  This isn't going to work.

Okay, plan b - cut out some expenses.  You could get rid of your dog and save a couple hundred bucks on dog food.  The kids might be sad, but it's better than getting evicted.  You could stop paying auto liability insurance and hope for the best, saving you another $300.  Only $500 to go.  Maybe switch to one meal a day?  That would surely save a few hundred dollars over the next 91 miserable days.

It all sounds so hopeless.  Because it is.  But it doesn't have to be.  We make it so, willfully, as a society.  You make it so.

I very rarely see anyone bringing up the most obvious target of these new abortion laws - poor, young single women.  For them, the state is not going to help them pay for their abortion, and nor will anyone else in their life.  They are working hard, and an unplanned pregnancy is the utter derailment of a slow, steady crawl out of a dismal situation.  And it is so because we allow it to be.

Look, conservatives, I'll make you a deal: Pay for women's abortions anytime leading up to the 20 week mark, and I'll agree it should be limited to 20 weeks.  Any interest?  What is your solution?