Many pro-choice advocates accuse pro-life advocates of using fringe cases to push an agenda. Often, they argue that pro-life advocates do not because we do not know that late term abortions happen only in cases of medical necessity or instances of fetal disability and incompatibility with life.
The idea that abortions that happen at or after 20 weeks are so incredibly rare that they’re hardly worthy of consideration is a common one. As is the idea that these are always the result of extreme circumstances ranging from the fetus already being dead to the mother having been raped. However, this is generally not true.
Despite how controversial the issue of late term abortions generally is, there is less research done on the subject than most would like, and most people are ignorant of even the limited data that we do have.
This lack of information often leads to rampant speculation and misinformation about why these abortions occur, and as such, whenever discussions over late term abortion arise they tend to be inevitably filled with recounts of extreme circumstances under which these abortions are procured. Stories abound of raped mothers who desperately wanted their child, only to find out at the last minute that their child is deformed, or situations where the death of the mother was somehow inevitable if she didn’t get a late abortion. Many will claim that these sorts of situations are the only, or main reasons why women would get late term abortions, and that they only occur after all other avenues are explored.
While no one can speak to the validity of such individual anecdotes, there is no real evidence to support the idea that women get late term abortions generally because of fetal anomaly or life endangerment. Instead, what research we have demonstrates that these cases make up an extremely small minority of late term abortions.(1)
Indeed, the most thorough research we seem to have on the issue shows that the reasons most women procure abortions at or after 20 weeks’ gestation are much the same as those who obtain first trimester abortions. They don’t want kids, don’t want to be single mothers, feel that having a child would interfere with their lives, etc.(2)
Other research on countries like England and Wales shows that most delays are generally caused by things such as late discovery of pregnancy. More than half the women who had an abortion at 21+ weeks had reached a gestation of at least 18 weeks before even taking a pregnancy test. Other delays after the discovery of pregnancy tended to result from things like being unsure if they wanted abortion, or conflict with partners that did not want a baby.(3)
Now, compared to the total number of abortions that are performed every year, it is absolutely late term abortions are relatively rare. When there’s hundreds of thousands of abortions every year however, that doesn’t really mean much.
As it stands, some 8,000–15,000 abortions occur annually after 20 weeks in the United States alone. For comparison, that’s about how many homicides are committed with firearms every year.(4)(5)
Sources
- Abortion At or Over 20 Weeks’ Gestation: Frequently Asked Questions Congressional Research Service. Report R45161, version 6. Updated April 30, 2018. Same report in accessible HTML
- Who Seeks Abortions at or After 20 Weeks? Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. December 2013; 45(4):210–218. Published online November 4, 2013. doi:10.1363/4521013. Published clarification (August 9, 2019; 51(3):185) Bibliographic record
- Second-trimester Abortions in England and Wales Centre for Sexual Health Research, University of Southampton. April 2007 research report. Original report PDF not recovered. The former BPAS address now redirects to a different 2019 report. The title link opens a contemporaneous parliamentary account that cites the original April 2007 report and discusses its findings. The related 2008 journal article is identified separately below. Related 2008 journal article: Reasons for Second Trimester Abortions in England and Wales Related journal article’s university record
- Assault or Homicide FastStats. Undated live page; displays 2024 mortality data. Accessed October 17, 2026. This live statistical page has been updated since the original essay. Its exact 2020 version was not recovered.
- Abortion Surveillance Findings and Reports Reproductive Health. November 27, 2024; current page reports 2022 surveillance data. Accessed October 17, 2026. The former abortion-statistics URL now redirects to a general reproductive-health page. This is the current page for the same CDC surveillance program; the exact 2020 page version was not recovered. Historical surveillance available when the essay was written: United States, 2016 (published November 29, 2019)
