This article says upto 70% of babies born at 23 week are surviving in some hospitals.
Yes. IN hospitals. They are not capable of independent survival. They need painful, constant intervention. Incubators, special care. Massive intervention. They suffer. Putting lines into such a tiny body causes them pain. It’s amazing that we can keep them alive - and I’m sure the limit of survival will be pushed back and back as technology improves. But not one of those babies could survive outside that environment and they have a huge chance of lifelong complications. Deafness, blindness, CP. multiple complex issues.
But frankly, whether they can or can’t survive doesn’t change the fact that the woman’s bodily autonomy trumps that of the foetus. Every time. Because the alternative is that women have no rights over their body. Think about what would happen if it was the other way around. Women would become vessels. No rights over their body.
The vast majority of abortions are done before 18weeks. Late term is rare and virtually every case is a wanted baby, a tragic diagnosis and heartbroken parents. The stats bear this out.
No one is having abortions for fun. The dilation and abortion procedure you refer to is not used unless there is a significant reason to and it’s used in a fraction of a percent of all abortions (0.2%) in the USA. Again, generally for reasons of severe and present danger to the mother or an illness incompatible with life in the foetus.
Club foot and cleft palate some are almost never used as a reason - both can and often do coexist with severe abnormality in The foetus so it’s more of an administrative label than a concrete reason. Cleft lip for example is a failure of the face to form and fuse - there are often underlying issues with the brain as well - such as holoprosencephaly.