Reasons for Late Abortions Found

Most of women who have had late abortions did not know they were pregnant, according to the study carried out by Southampton and Kent University.

The study involved 883 women who were asked why they had abortions so late, between 13 and 24 weeks of pregnancy. It turned out that most of them simply were not aware of the situation.

Late abortions (those done after the 12th week of pregnancy) comprise about 11 percent of all abortions. Circa 1 percent of late abortions occur later than on the 20th week of pregnancy.

Why did not women know they were pregnant?

The study that allowed women to give more than one answer, revealed the following figures:

Circa 40 percent of interviewed women were not aware of their pregnancy because of irregular periods.

31 percent were sure they could not be pregnant as they used a method of contraception.

41 percent of those who had late abortions said they delayed the procedure of identifying pregnancy as they had taken some time to decide whether to have an abortion or to give birth to the baby.

30 percent of interviewed women said they suspected they were pregnant but simply had not done about this matter and waited for many weeks to do a pregnancy test.

About 50 percent of women who took part in the questionnaire were at least 7 weeks pregnant when they learned about their pregnancy. Circa 25 percent of women were at the 11th week of pregnancy or even more.

Many women said they did not know what abortion implied. This concern caused then to wait before going ahead.

Expert's opinion

Dr. Ellie Lee, senior lecturer in social policy at the University of Kent says that there was not discussed an understanding of why women have late abortion in media and public debate about second-trimester abortions. She considers that there should be something done to help women to terminate pregnancies earlier.

Ann Ruredi, chief executive of British Pregnancy Advisory Service says that women do not know enough about their bodies and for this reason cannot realize they are pregnant, especially if they have irregular periods.

A spokeswoman for the anti-abortion Alive and Kicking Campaign says that the most important finding of the study is that 41 percent of women reported that the delay of the abortion was caused by indecision. The spokeswoman says they believe that the rights of the unborn child ought to take precedence over the uncertainty of the mother.