Late termination of pregnancy

Late termination of pregnancy, also referred to politically as third trimester abortion,^[2] describes the termination of pregnancy by inducing labor during a late stage of gestation.^[3] In this context, late is not precisely defined, and different medical publications use varying gestational age thresholds.^[3] As of 2015, in the United States, more than 90% of abortions occur before the 13th week, 1.3% take place after the 21st week,^[4] and less than 1% occur after 24 weeks.^[5][6]

Reasons for late terminations of pregnancy include circumstances where a pregnant woman's health is at risk or when birth defects, such as lethal fetal abnormalities, have been detected.^[7][8]

In the United States, the mortality rate for legal abortions overall is less than 1:100,000. The rate of mortality and morbidity increases with the gestational age of the fetus, so patients who have decided to have an abortion are strongly encouraged to get it early.^[9] Still, later abortion is not associated with any greater net negative physical or mental health outcomes (including mortality) than full-term pregnancy and childbirth in the United States.^[10][8][11]

Late termination of pregnancy is more controversial than abortion in general. All countries in Europe only permit abortion later in pregnancy (after 10-14 weeks in most countries, 18 weeks in Sweden and Iceland, and 24 weeks in the Netherlands and Great Britain) if specific circumstances are present, generally when the pregnancy represents a serious danger to the life, or to the physical or mental health of the woman, or when a serious malformation or anomaly of the fetus is diagnosed.^[12]