How many actual “late term” terminations actually happen? Actual reasons?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I took misoprostol for retained placenta, after delivering a healthy baby. Since the placenta is products of conception, it was technically an abortion.

Third trimester abortions are quite risky, difficult to obtain and very costly. People aren’t looking up at 29 weeks and deciding to get an abortion. I don’t think doctors would do it for that reason because the benefits wouldn’t outweigh the risks. Most maternal health complications at that point would be solved by delivering the baby.

Thx, and sorry you had to go through that complication. Sounds rough.

I checked out the Wiki on 3rd trim terminations; I don’t think there is any factual dispute they are rare.

I would like to believe 100% of them are for the correct reasons: severe malformations and serious medical risk to the mother. I am just trying to confirm what I would like to believe.

It’s really amazing how much hostility I’ve received here in this thread, even though I have been very up front about being pro choice.

[Anonymous]

It’s interesting that so many people are incredulous to the idea that women just don’t choose to have an abortion late in their pregnancies- at least not without medical reasons.
So why do people assume women are having these procedures? And who has been suggesting such things happen?
Well, when I interact with very online “Christian” men I hear that of course some women are having late third trimester abortions. They are certain of it. They are loud and they are often pastors in their congregations.
And the only answer to where these (baseless) ideas germinate, is that they know deep down, they would do it. Men project their violence and disregard for the sanctity of human life on to women.
Prisons are full of men. Prisons are full of violent, murderous men. Wars are started by the bloodlust of despicable despots.
Sure… occasionally a woman is violent, but the numbers just aren’t even close.
Men accuse women of having these abortions because they know with absolute certainty, if they could become pregnant, many men would have no problem aborting at any point.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of statistical information on line, OP. Pew Research Center and Kaiser Family Foundation are two.

[Anonymous]

It’s really amazing how much hostility I’ve received here in this thread, even though I have been very up front about being pro choice.

No, it's not really amazing. You're posting on a very liberal leaning board and questioning why women have a right to make their own medical decisions. People have told you virtually impossible for anyone to do this electively, but typically for medical or health reasons that would either endanger, critically harm or kill the mother or child and you still ask for data that seems to support the case that these women are not entitled to make the best medical decision for themselves.

Worse, you are suggesting the case the majority here do not want to see, but you are too lazy to do your own research. You essentially want other people to do research for your benefit "just to know" on a case against their own position. I'm the pp who posted the extrapolation post that suggests that out of millions of pregnancies every year, that there are likely less than 100 third trimester births that are performed outside of potentially risking death for the mother or for medical reasons for the baby. And I find your insistence that other people do research for you to accuse women of having elective third trimester abortions. There is no whole manufactured argument that this is happening. If you want to find this out, spend some of your own precious time to research it. Otherwise, give it a rest because we aren't here to do your conservative repugnant data mining.

And for the record, I'm not even a woman who had to make a terrible late term decision. I'm a guy who is so very happy that all options were on the table for when we were building our family. We did not need an abortion, but you can bet than if there was anything threatening my wife's life or her ability to later have a healthy pregnancy, that I would have wanted abortion to be on the table when we discussed our situation with my wife's doctors. And I still find your pushing for data that we don't have to be flat out obnoxious and offensive.

[Anonymous]

Found this research paper concluding

“Results

I find two pathways to needing a third-trimester abortion: new information, wherein the respondent learned new information about the pregnancy—such as of an observed serious fetal health issue or that she was pregnant—that made the pregnancy not (or no longer) one she wanted to continue; and barriers to abortion, wherein the respondent was in the third trimester by the time she was able to surmount the obstacles to abortion she faced, including cost, finding a provider, and stigmatization. These two pathways were not wholly distinct and sometimes overlapped.”


https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1363/psrh.12190

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Copied from another thread:

Here’s a study from Guttmacher showing the reasons women seek abortions after 20 weeks and it was about logistical delays not deformities.

https://onlinelibrary.wil...63/4521013

Here’s KFF

“Individuals seek abortions later in pregnancy for a number of reasons. As part of the Turnaway study out of the University of California San Francisco, from 2008-2010 over 440 women were asked about why they experienced delays in obtaining abortion care, if any (Figure 4). Almost half of individuals who obtained an abortion after 20 weeks did not suspect they were pregnant until later in pregnancy, and other barriers to care included lack of information about where to access an abortion, transportation difficulties, lack of insurance coverage and inability to pay for the procedure. A 2022 study of patients seeking abortions later in pregnancy found that they fell into two categories: either they had learned new information about their pregnancies that made them no longer desirable, such as not finding out they were pregnant until very late in the pregnancy or the emergence of serious fetal or their own health issue; or experiencing barriers to abortion services earlier in the pregnancy that force them to delay the abortion until the third trimester.“

Thank you; I appreciate that. At least it helps illuminate the issue better, and provide some reasons behind the phenomenon, to better understand it.

And please understand that “late term abortion” is a phrase used by anti-abortionists and that abortions in the third trimester which starts after week 27 when fetuses are at the point of viability are exceptionally rare and you would find almost no provider who would perform them that late and for no serious reason.

My apologies; I am pro choice so I will use “third trimester” instead. Thx.

I am genuinely interested in what the numbers are for 3rd trimester - looks like a very small percentage (smaller than I thought) but a percentage is not a number.

Also curious how many are medically necessary and how many are purely elective. Can we help define the issue with facts here?

ZERO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Copied from another thread:

Here’s a study from Guttmacher showing the reasons women seek abortions after 20 weeks and it was about logistical delays not deformities.

https://onlinelibrary.wil...63/4521013

Here’s KFF

“Individuals seek abortions later in pregnancy for a number of reasons. As part of the Turnaway study out of the University of California San Francisco, from 2008-2010 over 440 women were asked about why they experienced delays in obtaining abortion care, if any (Figure 4). Almost half of individuals who obtained an abortion after 20 weeks did not suspect they were pregnant until later in pregnancy, and other barriers to care included lack of information about where to access an abortion, transportation difficulties, lack of insurance coverage and inability to pay for the procedure. A 2022 study of patients seeking abortions later in pregnancy found that they fell into two categories: either they had learned new information about their pregnancies that made them no longer desirable, such as not finding out they were pregnant until very late in the pregnancy or the emergence of serious fetal or their own health issue; or experiencing barriers to abortion services earlier in the pregnancy that force them to delay the abortion until the third trimester.“

Thank you; I appreciate that. At least it helps illuminate the issue better, and provide some reasons behind the phenomenon, to better understand it.

And please understand that “late term abortion” is a phrase used by anti-abortionists and that abortions in the third trimester which starts after week 27 when fetuses are at the point of viability are exceptionally rare and you would find almost no provider who would perform them that late and for no serious reason.

My apologies; I am pro choice so I will use “third trimester” instead. Thx.

I am genuinely interested in what the numbers are for 3rd trimester - looks like a very small percentage (smaller than I thought) but a percentage is not a number.

Also curious how many are medically necessary and how many are purely elective. Can we help define the issue with facts here?

ZERO.

Can you provide any evidence to substantiate your claim?

[Anonymous]

As a woman I can tell you it takes awhile before you know you're pregnant! You may have late cycles and you may be stressed out. To really know you're late really involves 2 weeks after you were supposed to get your period so you're looking at 6-7 weeks for just the acknowledgement of pregnancy. It can be 8 weeks in some cases I don't think that's crazy. So to limit not 20 or 15 but anything that's closer to 6-10 weeks is doing an injustice and misses the point of choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a woman I can tell you it takes awhile before you know you're pregnant! You may have late cycles and you may be stressed out. To really know you're late really involves 2 weeks after you were supposed to get your period so you're looking at 6-7 weeks for just the acknowledgement of pregnancy. It can be 8 weeks in some cases I don't think that's crazy. So to limit not 20 or 15 but anything that's closer to 6-10 weeks is doing an injustice and misses the point of choice.

Yeah, OT for this thread but this is why six week bans are actually total bans. And 20-week bans don’t take into account all the specialists you see after the 20-week ultrasound where you got terrible news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It’s really amazing how much hostility I’ve received here in this thread, even though I have been very up front about being pro choice.

No, it's not really amazing. You're posting on a very liberal leaning board and questioning why women have a right to make their own medical decisions. People have told you virtually impossible for anyone to do this electively, but typically for medical or health reasons that would either endanger, critically harm or kill the mother or child and you still ask for data that seems to support the case that these women are not entitled to make the best medical decision for themselves.

Worse, you are suggesting the case the majority here do not want to see, but you are too lazy to do your own research. You essentially want other people to do research for your benefit "just to know" on a case against their own position. I'm the pp who posted the extrapolation post that suggests that out of millions of pregnancies every year, that there are likely less than 100 third trimester births that are performed outside of potentially risking death for the mother or for medical reasons for the baby. And I find your insistence that other people do research for you to accuse women of having elective third trimester abortions. There is no whole manufactured argument that this is happening. If you want to find this out, spend some of your own precious time to research it. Otherwise, give it a rest because we aren't here to do your conservative repugnant data mining.

And for the record, I'm not even a woman who had to make a terrible late term decision. I'm a guy who is so very happy that all options were on the table for when we were building our family. We did not need an abortion, but you can bet than if there was anything threatening my wife's life or her ability to later have a healthy pregnancy, that I would have wanted abortion to be on the table when we discussed our situation with my wife's doctors. And I still find your pushing for data that we don't have to be flat out obnoxious and offensive.

*Applause* Perfect explanation.

[Anonymous]

Here’s another link that shows insight into the reasoning behind the decision. Still doesn’t provide a total number though.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9321603/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Copied from another thread:

Here’s a study from Guttmacher showing the reasons women seek abortions after 20 weeks and it was about logistical delays not deformities.

https://onlinelibrary.wil...63/4521013

Here’s KFF

“Individuals seek abortions later in pregnancy for a number of reasons. As part of the Turnaway study out of the University of California San Francisco, from 2008-2010 over 440 women were asked about why they experienced delays in obtaining abortion care, if any (Figure 4). Almost half of individuals who obtained an abortion after 20 weeks did not suspect they were pregnant until later in pregnancy, and other barriers to care included lack of information about where to access an abortion, transportation difficulties, lack of insurance coverage and inability to pay for the procedure. A 2022 study of patients seeking abortions later in pregnancy found that they fell into two categories: either they had learned new information about their pregnancies that made them no longer desirable, such as not finding out they were pregnant until very late in the pregnancy or the emergence of serious fetal or their own health issue; or experiencing barriers to abortion services earlier in the pregnancy that force them to delay the abortion until the third trimester.“

Also important to note that the 20 weeks mentioned is still second trimester.

Roe protected abortion rights to viability at 24 weeks. That was in place for 50 years and that is what we should return to. This study is at 20 weeks for some reason

The link includes abortions after 20 weeks and into the third trimester. It’s not “at 20 weeks”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Copied from another thread:

Here’s a study from Guttmacher showing the reasons women seek abortions after 20 weeks and it was about logistical delays not deformities.

https://onlinelibrary.wil...63/4521013

Here’s KFF

“Individuals seek abortions later in pregnancy for a number of reasons. As part of the Turnaway study out of the University of California San Francisco, from 2008-2010 over 440 women were asked about why they experienced delays in obtaining abortion care, if any (Figure 4). Almost half of individuals who obtained an abortion after 20 weeks did not suspect they were pregnant until later in pregnancy, and other barriers to care included lack of information about where to access an abortion, transportation difficulties, lack of insurance coverage and inability to pay for the procedure. A 2022 study of patients seeking abortions later in pregnancy found that they fell into two categories: either they had learned new information about their pregnancies that made them no longer desirable, such as not finding out they were pregnant until very late in the pregnancy or the emergence of serious fetal or their own health issue; or experiencing barriers to abortion services earlier in the pregnancy that force them to delay the abortion until the third trimester.“

Thank you; I appreciate that. At least it helps illuminate the issue better, and provide some reasons behind the phenomenon, to better understand it.

And please understand that “late term abortion” is a phrase used by anti-abortionists and that abortions in the third trimester which starts after week 27 when fetuses are at the point of viability are exceptionally rare and you would find almost no provider who would perform them that late and for no serious reason.

My apologies; I am pro choice so I will use “third trimester” instead. Thx.

I am genuinely interested in what the numbers are for 3rd trimester - looks like a very small percentage (smaller than I thought) but a percentage is not a number.

Also curious how many are medically necessary and how many are purely elective. Can we help define the issue with facts here?

ZERO.

Can you provide any evidence to substantiate your claim?

Can you prove otherwise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If half of abortions occurring in the second trimester, after 20 weeks, are the result of not having the funds to get an abortion, then you definitely aren’t paying for a 20,000 plus procedure in the third trimester.

This is the real issue. People are getting abortions late for reasons OTHER than birth defects or health of mother.

OP again. This is the claim I’d like to fact-check.

How many third-trimester terminations are for reasons OTHER THAN birth defects or physical health of the mother?

No has answered that yet.

DP I think the simple answer to your question is that nobody knows because nobody is keeping track of this data.

OP again. Thx.

Sadly, people littered this thread with political statements even after I said not to. And while some information has been shared (thx again), we still do not have facts, which makes debating this kinda pointless.

My guess is you are probably right: no one is keeping track of this data.

If so, there really is no reliable answer to my question: how many third-trimester terminations are purely elective.

Unless someone can post some actual data in answer to my question, there’s no longer much point to anyone posting (again: stop posting political responses! This is about ascertaining basic facts. That’s all).

You are such a troll!!
The answer to your question is:
Vanishingly small. My research indicates about 148 over a twelve year period, most for fetal abnormalities or health of the mother. The remainder unreported, but believed the same.

Link?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Copied from another thread:

Here’s a study from Guttmacher showing the reasons women seek abortions after 20 weeks and it was about logistical delays not deformities.

https://onlinelibrary.wil...63/4521013

Here’s KFF

“Individuals seek abortions later in pregnancy for a number of reasons. As part of the Turnaway study out of the University of California San Francisco, from 2008-2010 over 440 women were asked about why they experienced delays in obtaining abortion care, if any (Figure 4). Almost half of individuals who obtained an abortion after 20 weeks did not suspect they were pregnant until later in pregnancy, and other barriers to care included lack of information about where to access an abortion, transportation difficulties, lack of insurance coverage and inability to pay for the procedure. A 2022 study of patients seeking abortions later in pregnancy found that they fell into two categories: either they had learned new information about their pregnancies that made them no longer desirable, such as not finding out they were pregnant until very late in the pregnancy or the emergence of serious fetal or their own health issue; or experiencing barriers to abortion services earlier in the pregnancy that force them to delay the abortion until the third trimester.“

Thank you; I appreciate that. At least it helps illuminate the issue better, and provide some reasons behind the phenomenon, to better understand it.

And please understand that “late term abortion” is a phrase used by anti-abortionists and that abortions in the third trimester which starts after week 27 when fetuses are at the point of viability are exceptionally rare and you would find almost no provider who would perform them that late and for no serious reason.

My apologies; I am pro choice so I will use “third trimester” instead. Thx.

I am genuinely interested in what the numbers are for 3rd trimester - looks like a very small percentage (smaller than I thought) but a percentage is not a number.

Also curious how many are medically necessary and how many are purely elective. Can we help define the issue with facts here?

ZERO.

We know from the published surveys in the medical literature that it isn’t zero.