This, however, might wreck Northam's administration:
Gov. Ralph Northam said:
Third-trimester abortions ... are done with the consent of obviously the mother, with consent of the physician, multiple physicians by the way, and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities or there may be a fetus that’s nonviable. In this particular example if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother. So I think this was blown out of proportion.”
Governor responds to backlash for late-term abortion remarks
Delegate Tran's bill would reduce to one the number of physicians that are needed to certify that a third trimester abortion is needed, and would lower the threshold of "needed" to basically the convenience of the mother. (The committee chairman asked Del. Tran if a mother's
mental health were at risk, if the bill would allow an abortion up unit the moment the mother goes into labor, and Tran tried to redefine the question as
physical health, but Gilbert corrects her and Tran then says the bill would allow that.)
Northam, in the WTOP radio interview quoted above, changes the subject slightly by asserting that third trimester abortions
currently are only performed in cases of "severe deformities" and "nonviability" and goes on to describe how infanticide is handled. That was kind of weird. Now, I do not think if Dr. Northam was to deliver a legless baby (i.e. one with severe deformities) he would ask the mother, "Want me to let that baby die?" But his comments on the WTOP radio interview were vague enough he should (and probably has) clarified that.