The Governor's proposed amendment #2 represents a significant departure from the widely-held medical standard on the length of the first trimester, which the current regulations recognize as being 12 weeks - not 13 weeks and 6 days, as the Governor proposes. For instance, the federal Office on Women's Health (OWH) states that the first trimester is week 1 to week 12 after a woman's last menstrual period. Pregnancy.org states that "The second trimester begins at 12 weeks." Other significant medical authorities reflect the same.

Moreover, the National Institutes of Health states in its U.S. National Library of Medicine that "A fetus at 12 weeks can make a fist and suck its thumb." Clearly, by 12 weeks, it is indisputable that the child in the womb is fully formed with all of the corresponding characteristics most associated with personhood. Without a doubt, "the State's profound interest" in protecting "life or potential life" in the womb, as affirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, contemplates the legitimate interest in protecting fetal life at its more advanced stages.

When the General Assembly passed laws regulating abortion procedures and restricting clinics to performing only first trimester abortions, its clear purpose was to permit greater latitude of abortions for the portion of the pregnancy when the fetus was less fully formed. But given that by the 12th week of the pregnancy we know for sure that the fetus can do virtually all of the things that typical babies can do (e.g. making a fist and sucking its thumb), any termination of the child after that stage in development cannot warrant the same latitude the General Assembly had in mind. Therefore, the restrictions placed on abortion clinics limiting them to abortions during the first trimester must comport with this correct legal and contextual understanding. As such, the 12 week standard, as is currently recognized by the regulations and by leading medical authorities, should remain in place. 

Additionally, it is also true that the later in the pregnancy an abortion is conducted, the greater the risks are to health and safety. Especially in light of the proposed changes to the regulations stripping many of the requirements for abortion clinic health and safety standards, the act of simultaneously extending the period in the pregnancy within which the child may be aborted in those clinics can only make for a less safe and riskier environment. Consequently, this change should be discouraged. For all of these reasons, I recommend retaining the current gestational time frame for the first trimester as reflective of the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.