Actually, McCain was quite right. Doe v. Bolton, an important abortion case decided the same day as Roe v. Wade, says, "We agree with the District Court, 319 F. Supp., at 1058, that the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors - physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age - relevant to the wellbeing of the patient. All these factors may relate to health.”

In practice, this means that writing a "health" exception into a late-term abortion ban would still allow a woman to have a late-term abortion for just about any reason that her doctor would approve--making the ban essentially useless. So McCain's statement that "health" has been misused by abortion rights supporters is 100% right on.