Abortion: Medical Terminology Unveiled

Even though abortion is a widely known and hotly debated topic, common misconceptions concerning terminology have permeated American society for the past few decades. Men and women outside the periphery of the medical field have commonly -- and erroneously -- defined abortion as a purposely induced act performed at any point preceding pregnancy. However, this popular definition diverges from the standard medical definition, which is this: A miscarriage or induced termination of the embryo or fetus before twenty weeks' gestation (or during the state of non-viability). Throughout this article, we will refer to the medical definition of abortion rather than the popular one.

There are two different categories that abortions are relegated to: Spontaneous and induced. Spontaneous abortions are generally referred to as miscarriages -- the death of an embryo or fetus due to accidental trauma or natural causes before the twentieth week of gestation. They are normally caused by either chromosomal abnormalities or environmental factors. A miscarriage that occurs before six weeks from the woman's last menstrual period is termed early pregnancy loss. One that occurs subsequent to six weeks from the woman's last menstrual period is termed clinical spontaneous abortion.

So one may ask, "What about a miscarriage that occurs after the twentieth week?" Depending on whether the baby is actually born or not, it is termed either a premature birth or stillbirth; a premature birth if the baby lives outside the womb but dies before the thirty-seventh week; a stillbirth if the baby dies in the uterus following the twentieth week of gestation. It should be quickly noted that any attempt to kill the baby by willful means does not fall into this category, but rather the second category -- Induced abortion.

Induced abortion occurs when there is any willful intent to remove or expel the embryo from the uterus. Having said this, this type of abortion breaks down into two further subcategories -- Therapeutic and elective.