DR. WILLIAM RASHBAUM, a New York City gynecologist and one of the pre-eminent and longest-practicing providers of second-trimester abortions in the United States, is not known as easygoing, and upon returning from a day of operations he erupts at the question of why one of his patients that afternoon, a 14-year-old rape victim, waited so long for an abortion. That’s the one question he can’t stand. Witness to myriad women in their most intimate and dire moments, this elderly doctor, dressed in an outfit of khaki pants, bow tie, and red-striped oxford shirt, all reminiscent of a prep-school student, is...