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What is considered a 'late-term' abortion medically and legally in the United States?
Executive summary
There is no single medical definition of “late‑term” abortion; major medical organizations say the phrase has no clear clinical meaning while many reports and legal regimes use thresholds that range from about 20–24 weeks onward (viability) or simply “after the first trimester” in colloquial usage [1] [2] [3]. Legally, U.S. state laws vary widely: some statutes set specific week limits (from around 6 to 24 weeks or more), others use fetal viability as the cutoff, and a minority of jurisdictions allow abortion later in pregnancy with health or life exceptions [4] [1].
1. “Late‑term” is a political and colloquial label, not a standardized medical term
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other medical voices have criticized “late‑term” as having no medical meaning; clinicians generally use precise gestational ages and clinical terms (e.g., second trimester, third trimester, viability) rather than “late‑term” [1] [5]. Medical reviews and older clinical literature show researchers and journals have used different cutoffs — for example, studies have historically treated 20 or 28 weeks as markers for “late” in various contexts — illustrating that the label is inconsistent even within the medical literature [2] [6].
2. Common gestational reference points used in reporting and law
Reporters, advocacy groups, and some legal texts commonly anchor “later” abortions to concrete weeks: many sources mention around 20–24 weeks (often tied to fetal viability) or simply “after the first trimester” (after ~12–13 weeks) as practical reference points [2] [3] [7]. Policy briefs note that “late‑term” is used to describe abortions at or after about 21 weeks in some discussions, but emphasize the absence of a consensus definition [1].
3. Viability is the most common legal and rhetorical threshold
A key legal and policy concept is fetal viability — the gestational age at which a fetus, with medical support, may survive outside the womb — commonly placed around 23–24 weeks in many accounts; courts and some state laws have used viability as a legal marker for when different rules apply [8] [1]. The exact moment of viability varies by pregnancy and medical circumstances, which complicates any single‑number legal rule [8].
4. State laws and the post‑Dobbs landscape produce huge variation
State laws diverge dramatically: some states set fixed week limits (ranging broadly, with cited examples from 6 to 20 weeks), others rely on viability, and several states allow later abortions with specific exceptions for the life or health of the pregnant person or severe fetal anomalies; a handful of states impose no gestational threshold in statute [4] [1]. WorldPopulationReview’s aggregation and KFF briefs document this patchwork and show that 43 states limit abortions after a certain point in pregnancy, while a small group of jurisdictions permit later care without explicit week ceilings [4] [1].
5. How often do “later” abortions occur, and why?
Later procedures are rare: widely cited figures put abortions after about 20–21 weeks at roughly 1–1.3% of U.S. abortions and less than 1% after 24 weeks, while most abortions occur before 13 weeks [2]. Reasons include delays in diagnosis (for example, lethal fetal anomalies discovered later), barriers to access, and maternal health risks; authoritative accounts emphasize that later abortions are predominantly driven by medical necessity or access issues rather than elective, late‑in‑pregnancy choice [2] [9].
6. Procedures, terminology misuse, and political framing
Clinical practice uses procedure names (e.g., dilation and evacuation) or clinical indicators (viability, fetal anomaly, maternal health) rather than emotive labels. Advocacy organizations on both sides have promoted different definitions to fit policy goals: anti‑abortion advocates have historically applied “late‑term” to a range of weeks to press for bans, while reproductive‑health groups and professional societies push back, calling the term misleading [7] [5] [1].
7. Limitations in the public record and implications for reporting
Available sources show disagreement over what “late‑term” means and strong political use of the term; medical societies assert the term lacks clinical precision [1] [5]. Available sources do not mention a single, universally accepted gestational week defining “late‑term” abortion in medicine or law. For readers, the takeaway is to look for precise gestational ages and statutory language when assessing claims, and to note whether an account is medical, legal, or political because each will use different framing [1] [4].
If you want, I can compile specific state examples (which states use fixed week limits, which use viability, and which allow later abortions) drawn from the state‑law summaries in the sources above.