Cristina Page, Troy Newman “Clash” on PBS over Late-Term Abortions

Cristina Page takes one for the team and goes up against Operation Rescue's Troy Newman on a PBS "Issue Clash," debating late-term abortions.

Cristina Page took one for the team and went up against Operation Rescue’s Troy Newman on a PBS "Issue Clash," debating late-term abortions. You can vote for the winner of the debate here!

To Newman’s claim that

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reports that there has
never been a late-term abortion in Kansas to save a woman’s life. The
majority of physicians concur that a post-viability abortion is never
medically necessary. If there is a life-threatening condition to the
mother or child, the baby should be delivered and given the appropriate
medical treatment.

Cristina responds, "There are a wide array of tragic conditions that can harm a pregnancy,
threaten the viability of the fetus and the health and life of the
woman. Until you have walked in the shoes of those who have suffered
through these decisions, you can never know what the right course of
action is."

In response to the question, "What impact does late-term abortion have on our society?" Newman responds,

A civilized society is judged by how it treats the weakest of its
members. Access to an act that kills a viable baby devalues the lives
of all members of society. I believe that drive-by shootings, mothers
throwing away their children, and even the shootings of abortionists
all stem from the abortion culture that openly implies that a person
who is inconvenient is somehow disposable.

In Newman’s formulation, women become the disposal ones.  Cristina rebuts, 

I think, to understand the impact, we must hear from women and their families who have needed an abortion at this stage of pregnancy. Typically these are much-wanted pregnancies diagnosed with grave or fatal anomalies.
They were women diagnosed with cancer who could not start chemotherapy
unless they terminated their pregnancies; women whose babies would be
born only to suffer from genetic illness and die soon after; children
who were victims of rape or incest and didn’t understand they were
pregnant until many months along. So, the impact on society can only be
measured by the despair lessened and the mercy provided to women, girls
and those families in these tragic circumstances.