A Question About Abortion and ‘Self-Defense’

Pretty regularly now we see a story about a woman somewhere in no-abortion land who has a pregnancy that threatens her life, and she gets told “no, you can’t have an abortion, even if it would save you”. She is told that despite the ability of doctors to save her, she has to risk death or die because that’s the law.

Which raises the question, why? Doesn’t she have a right to self defense? And wouldn’t that make having an abortion justified, a justifiable abortion?

It seems pretty straightforward to me. If abortion is criminalized, but an abortion is in self defense, then there is no crime. And if there is no crime, then no one can be charged for it.

Perhaps someone with expertise in the law would like to reply and explain what the problem with “justifiable abortion” as a defense is. I am curious how this defense would play out in court as well.