It’s important to remember that a wide range of factors affect the decision to have an abortion.
These include very personal issues that cannot easily be understood by others or grouped into general categories.
Overall Cost
Having a child is expensive.
Illustration by Julie Bang for Verywell Health
Situations that impact financial security include being unemployed or underemployed.
Lack of Health Insurance
Being uninsured falls under the financial umbrella as well.
Others may have the need but simply not want to rely on such aid.
Affording Healthcare
Most Americans qualify forsubsidized coveragethrough an employer or a government program.
Don’t assume you cannot get affordable coverage.
And some may have decided that they never want to have children.
Lack of Partner Support
The majority of pregnant people who choose to have an abortion are unmarried.
According to data from 2019, 85.5% of those who had abortions were single.
For some of them, the fact that they are unmarried contributes to their decision to seek an abortion.
Social Stigma
Some people seek abortions because of the social stigma of an unplanned pregnancy.
The frequency of pregnancy from incest is not as well documented.
However, studies show 1% of women disclose their reason for having an abortion is rape or incest.
They may feel they are done having children or wish to space out their children.
These pregnancies also come with fetal risk.
Women with renal or cardiac diseases are particularly at high risk for pregnancy-related death.
An ectopic pregnancy, for example, comes up whenever the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus.
More than 90% of these occur in a fallopian tube, which will rupture as the pregnancy continues.
The rupture can cause major internal bleeding, leading to death.
Fetal Health
There may also be worries about the health of the fetus.
This can be found during genetic testing in early pregnancy or during an anatomy scan at about 20 weeks.
Another 6% of abortions take place before 20 weeks, the midpoint of the pregnancy.
Less than 1% of abortions occur after 20 weeks.
What Is a Late-Term Abortion?
Late-term abortion is not an official medical term.
The medical definition of late-term pregnancy is a pregnancy in its 41st week.
(After that, it’s a post-term pregnancy.)
Late-term abortion is a sociological or political term that refers to abortions that occur after 20 weeks.
This accounts for less than 1% of abortions.
Medical Reasons
Abortions after 20 weeks often occur for medical reasons.
Fetal abnormalities are often first identified at the 20-week anatomy scan.
Some women are unable to schedule this scan before 20 weeks.
In other cases, they do not get the results until after 20 weeks.
Concerns over the mother’s health are another medical reason for an abortion after 20 weeks.
In each case, though, multiple factors go into making the decision to terminate a pregnancy.
Other common reasons for abortion include social, emotional, and family issues.
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