Later Abortions
There are reasons why women might wait and have to have a later term abortion. For some people, a hospital facility offering abortion services is not in their area and they have to travel great distances for the help. Sometimes a woman has to wait long enough to save up the money for an abortion. An abortion costs about $350 and some women do not have the ability to get that money quickly. Some states have specific laws regarding the amount of time a woman has to wait to get an abortion. Some states mandate parental consent, so a teenager needs time to talk to her parents about the situation. A teenager might also be in denial and delay getting the abortion as long as possible. Another common reason to have a later term abortion is because of an undiagnosed medical condition. If a woman finds that her baby has fatal or serious health problems, she may want to terminate the pregnancy. Or if the woman fears that her health is in danger because of diabetes or heart problems, she may want to terminate the pregnancy to help herself.
The common technique for abortions after 14-15 weeks of pregnancy is dilation and evacuation. This is similar to the surgical abortion mentioned above but requires a larger cervical opening. The dilation and evacuation process can take 10-30 minutes. The other technique for later term abortion is induction. This is performed in less than 2% of the abortion cases. In this procedure, a needle is passed through the abdomen into the uterus to inject medication. This medication induces contractions. This induces labor and expels the fetus.
