--- title: How Fetal Viability Is Misunderstood description: The abolishment of Roe v. Wade has reduced the ability of high-risk pregnancy doctors to provide the best care for patients—and raises questions about viability canonical: https://time.com/6196775/fetus-prioritized-before-pegnancy-viable/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-07-14T11:00:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-30T11:03:09.698Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Politicization of Fetal Viability og:description: The abolishment of Roe v. Wade has reduced the ability of high-risk pregnancy doctors to provide the best care for patients og:url: https://time.com/6196775/fetus-prioritized-before-pegnancy-viable/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11bcec3a55977015/698a33b1096a944ec26acc34/abortion-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: HEADLINE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Politicization of Fetal Viability twitter:description: The abolishment of Roe v. Wade has reduced the ability of high-risk pregnancy doctors to provide the best care for patients twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11bcec3a55977015/698a33b1096a944ec26acc34/abortion-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Politicization of Fetal Viability > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=530c7eee-84f7-4f1f-b56d-2e2456d2830a&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A History of How Abortion is Shown in Film and Television [Watch (HLS stream): A History of How Abortion is Shown in Film and Television](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Ca77dTts.m3u8) (8:41)  _Published 2022-07-05. TIME explores abortion and how it's covered across media; from films that tell cautionary tales and depict the procedure as life-upending to more compassionate pieces that portray the varied experiences of women._ by [Adam Lewkowitz](https://time.com/author/adam-lewkowitz/) and [Nina Ayala](https://time.com/author/nina-ayala/) Jul 14, 2022 11:00 AM UTC  An ultrasound machine sits in a room where at Whole Womans Health of South Bend on Oct. 29, 2021. An ultrasound machine sits in a room where at Whole Womans Health of South Bend on Oct. 29, 2021. Taylor Glascock—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Adam Lewkowitz](https://time.com/author/adam-lewkowitz/) and [Nina Ayala](https://time.com/author/nina-ayala/) Jul 14, 2022 11:00 AM UTC The [fall of Roe v. Wade](https://time.com/6189476/abortion-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade/) on June 24 marked the start of a strange era to be a Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician. By definition, we take care of anyone with a high-risk pregnancy, which can occur because the pregnant person has a medical condition such as diabetes or breast cancer or because something is wrong with the fetus genetically or anatomically, like a birth defect. As high-risk pregnancy physicians, we share the mantra that we hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Luckily, of the thousands of patients we have cared over the last 12 years, the majority have achieved our hope of the best: a relatively uneventful pregnancy and successful live birth. But, despite our best preparations, some have suffered the worst: we have mourned mothers who have died during pregnancy or childbirth and, with our patients, have mourned the loss of their highly desired pregnancies in the womb. For these reasons—not to mention the fundamental principal in medical ethics of patient autonomy (the right of patients to make their own decisions about their body, even if the doctor disagrees or the decision goes against medical advice)—abortion care goes hand-in-hand with high-risk [pregnancy care](https://time.com/6190782/roe-overturned-pregnancy-complications-miscarriage/). In fact, many high-risk pregnancy providers also provide abortions for pregnancies that were initially highly desired, sometimes to save their patients’ lives and sometimes because their patient’s fetus has severe genetic abnormalities or birth defects incompatible with life after birth. Other times, we provide abortions because of complications like life-threatening vaginal bleeding, an abnormally dilated cervix, or broken bag of water during what is called the “previable period.” To understand what the previable period is, we must first understand fetal viability. Fetal viability does not begin when the small collection of embryonic cells that may eventually become a heart starts pulsating at 6 or 7 weeks’ gestation. In medicine, fetal viability is defined as the point in pregnancy that survival is possible, should birth occur. Though there is no universal consensus, currently in the U.S., fetal viability is thought to be at approximately 6 months of pregnancy (23-24 weeks’ gestation), though some hospitals offer aggressive treatment for babies born at 22 weeks gestation and survival has been reported as early as 21 weeks. Despite rapid advancements in care for newborn babies over the last few decades, babies born before viability—even those at the cusp of viability—cannot survive after birth. --- ### More from TIME --- As Maternal-Fetal Medicine physicians, we are geographically lucky: because we live in Rhode Island, which has already codified the legal right to abortion into state law, our ability to practice all aspects of [high-risk pregnancy care](https://time.com/6194397/abortions-lifesaving-ectopic-pregnancy/), including offering and providing abortions, is unchanged. However, the post Roe v. Wade reality has dramatically affected our friends and colleagues practicing in states in which policy makers have already passed laws that make no medical sense. These laws prioritize the continuation of previable pregnancies—those that may have a heartbeat but have zero chance of survival should birth occur—above the health and autonomy of an actual, living pregnant person. Some of these laws do not make exceptions for ectopic pregnancies, which may have a heartbeat but are, by definition, located outside the uterus, are never viable at any gestational age, and are, in fact, life threatening to the pregnant person. (However, hospitals must provide abortions if the life of the mother is at risk, the Biden Administration [declared July 11](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/11/health/federal-abortion-law-preempts-state-law/index.html); in these cases federal law supercedes state abortion bans.) Colleagues in these states describe that practicing obstetrics now feels like we are back in the Middle Ages. They have already watched women with previable pregnancies hemorrhage during an early pregnancy loss, waiting for either the embryo’s heart to stop beating or for the mother to lose enough blood to feel legally justified to proceed with a simple, safe procedure to remove the pregnancy tissue. They have watched women with previable pregnancies partially deliver fetuses through abnormally dilated cervices, again waiting for the fetal heart to stop beating or for the mother to be sick enough from a preventable infection to be legally justified to help what has started—a previable delivery—continue. They have also diagnosed serious fetal anomalies in highly desired pregnancies but can no longer offer an abortion as an option, even if the patient would have preferred to not continue the pregnancy. Before June 24, 2022, these common clinical scenarios were already devastating for pregnant people. But the abolishment of Roe v. Wade has eliminated many of our patients’ agency about their pregnancies and reduced our ability as high-risk pregnancy providers to provide abortions when they are medically recommended or personally desired. The intentional decision of policymakers to prioritize the wellbeing of a previable fetus with a beating heart over the wellbeing of the pregnant person is not just medically incorrect, it is socially reprehensible with dire consequences. ## Transcript Hey, I'm just a big show generations of filmmakers have to pick that the issue of abortion from stories about a legal procedures to perfectly legal and uneventful abortions and even the abortion pill. So following the Supreme Court decision to strike down row. How will a new reality in America begin to make its way onto screens pressure. Goes? Abortion in Phil is not new. Perhaps the earliest example, is the 1916 movie, where are my children in this film? Based on the trial of Planned Parenthood? Founder Margaret Sanger a lawyer Prosecuting, an illegal provider, finds out that his own wife has had multiple abortions, which is rendered her infertile the movie simultaneously. Argues a racist and eugenic point that birth control is important for someone. But that wealthy women who choose abortion or selfish early films, often told cautionary tales depicting. The procedure is traumatic and life up ending, but over the years storylines and movies have begun to evolve to become more compassionate and certainly more accurately display, the varied experiences of women and the realities of abortion. Let me local, okay. My experience with abortions on film is like in European films that scarred me for life, you know, just, you know, like the the did truly the backroom abortion scene work together on the film. Saint Francis, the movie follows a nanny and juxtaposes her taking care of a child during the day while just making the decision to terminate her own pregnancy. A lot of what I had an abortion when I was in my early thirties and all of the TV and install might seem that had to picked it up, orschlens made it seem really scary. And when I went through the actual process I felt relieved. I found the process to be while complicated actually pretty simple. And so I really wanted to show, you know, quote-unquote normal abortion isn't surrounded by traumatic events and that doesn't involve a lot of hand-wringing and doubt and regret but a woman knowing immediately or person know immediately but it wasn't the right time. Today, I found some clothes with fresh blood on them and I just was second, try to hurt herself or her mind. no, I had an abortion, a couple of months ago and I've been bleeding off and on ever since then that's too much. I feel like in must he be in thong. We've seen the woman really spend a lot of time questioning her decision and I'm sure that happens to many women in real life, but it has been a pretty monolithic exploration of doubt in terms of abortion as so. I wanted to show the other version which is I'm pregnant. I'm not going to have this baby because I don't think that either the lack of doubt, the lack of regret. Shonda Rhimes has just been like a complete game-changer for how we portray abortion on network television. Start making decisions about and talking about why it was important to her to be abortion provider and actually the first and then the second show to actually show the full of working procedure on screen and had intentions of managed abortion and see her absolute commitment to this type of Storytelling has I think really open doors for a lot of other writers and content creators who want to include that on network TV. Should be here. I should not be here. Walk down the street in and open the door and Waltz right in and say hello. My name is Veronica, my boyfriend is an asshole. Here's my $500. Elf, I already been on that journey of trying to normalize my own abortion and then this this book came to me and it felt like a perfect way to take the next step and really get to share my perspective, my heart, Rachel Lee Goldberg is the director of unpregnant her film details. The Adventures of a 17 year, old pregnant teen and ex-best friend as they travel from Missouri to New Mexico, to get an abortion idea of of this, not having to be a sad thing and it can just be something with the Central and something that happens is, is really, is, is important, is a perspective, it's real, it's a comedy, but the comedy in the, in the film largely comes from making fun of the journey. And that's, you know, that's how I feel very confident in saying that it's bullshit that these people have to travel this far, to get a procedure. A medical procedure unpregnant was made in 2020, but following the Supreme Court's decision in 2020 to abortions in Missouri are now permitted. Alien cases of medical emergency, there are no exceptions for rape or incest under the law. Abortion is still legal in New Mexico, which is readying to become a destination for women. Seeking care depictions of a board come a long way since the infancy of Hollywood and the institution of the Hays code in 1930, the Hays code was the system of self-censorship for filmed, requiring movies to be wholesome and more. If the character had an abortion in the movie, The Hays code required that they'd meet an unhappy ending, usually characters died, or abandon or ultimately chose not to have an abortion. The Hays code officially ended in 1968. Paving the way for more diverse coverage of abortion. Dirty Dancing continues to be one of my favorite abortion stories, that that is an American film. I just love it because I love it. That the whole plot of the movie is only propelled by tiniest friends, desire to help her, some help support her get an abortion, right? To help pay for the abortion. Help. Cover her day off of work and to help her see that abortion turns out to be dangerous and ends really support or network is really the driving force for the whole film. Is the battle to secure Reproductive Rights ramps up, and individual states. The role that films and TV can play in the battle for public opinion, may be more essential than ever to what comes next. I think, demystifying the process. I didn't know before I went and got a medication abortion, that that was even possible. I assumed it was going to be Surgical and so I think they're probably still a lot of people out there who don't know exactly what an abortion might entail for them. And we wanted to show the process of putting the pills in your cheek and let him know to dissolve and then you might get sick and and the recovery process so that people can feel seen before and the people who might want to see the horses in the future, don't feel scared of speaking for myself. I'm already on to my next for some project deep deep in abortion project number to right now. So you know I'm hoping that other people will be compelled to do the same you know, as as artists and filmmakers are people in Media. More and more specific stories, which I think is the trend that were seeing already. But I hope this lights of fire and, you know, maybe those storytellers who have stories to tell their sugar burning inside. You're compelled to tell them now, we're already seeing it, but I'm I'm, I'm excited for that next stage of of stories to be told. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6196775/fetus-prioritized-before-pegnancy-viable/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6196775/fetus-prioritized-before-pegnancy-viable/"},"headline":"The Politicization of Fetal Viability","datePublished":"2022-07-14T11:00:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-30T11:03:09.698Z","description":"The abolishment of Roe v. 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