Late term abortion or the late termination of pregnancy is that kind of an abortion which is carried out at a relatively late stage in the pregnancy or in the case when the fetus is well developed or viable. Late term abortions generally refer to the abortions which occur after the 20th week of pregnancy and are considered controversial due to many reasons.
There are many cases in which abortions which took place even after the 16th week were considered late-term. Due to their controversial nature, late term abortions are banned or prohibited by many states and countries. Let’s look at some of the late term abortion facts and figures:
- Different sources have different definitions of late term abortion because some sources even say that abortions occurring after 24th week or in the third trimester are considered late term. While in other cases, late term abortion is referred to an abortion occurring either after the 16th week of the 20th week.
- Late termination of pregnancy is considered controversial because by the time it happens, the fetus is already ‘viable’ which means that the fetus has developed to a large extent.
- A lot of states in the world prohibit aborting of fetus which is more than 16 or 20 weeks old.
- Late term abortions may also always be a matter of choice but a matter of medical reasoning. There are certain situations in which the fetus is not fit to survive and must be aborted to save the mother.
- In some cases, medical conditions which are aggravated by pregnancy such as heart disease or diabetes may also result in late termination of pregnancy.
- It is a fact that 88% of the abortions occur within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy while only 1.5% of the pregnancies occur after 21 week of gestation.
- The risk of a mother’s death in the case of late term abortion is a lot more than in the case of other abortions side effects.
- It is a scientifically proven fact that babies feel excruciating pain during the procedure or aborting of a fetus which is more than 20 week old.
- The abortion procedure which is employed to abort a fetus that is more than 14 weeks old is called D&E. This procedure involves a long steel tool to grasp and then tear off the arms and legs of the little fetus. Eventually the skull of the fetus is crushed.
