# abortion
## English
### Etymology

From Latin abortiōnem (“miscarriage, abortion”), from aborior (“to miscarry”). Equivalent to abort +‎ -ion. Displaced native Old English ǣwyrp (literally “throwing out, rejection”).

### Pronunciation

* (US) enPR: əʹbôrshən, IPA: /əˈbɔɹ.ʃn̩/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)ʃən

### Noun

abortion (countable and uncountable, plural abortions)
* (medicine) The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus.[from 16th c.]
** (now uncommon in general use) A spontaneous abortion; a miscarriage.
*** 1605 [1578], Josuah, transl. Sylvester, “The Third Day of the First Week”, in Devine Weekes and Workes, translation of La Premiere Sepmaine by Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, lines 693–696:Swines-bread, so used, doth not onely speed / A tardy labour; but (without great heed) / If over it a Child-great Woman stride, / Instant abortion often doth betide.
*** 1809, William Nicholson, The British Encyclopaedia, volume IV:At any time after impregnation, abortion may take place: it is one of the most common complaints of pregnancy, whence it is a matter of no small consequence that every practitioner should well understand it.
** An induced abortion.
    Mary decided to have an abortion because she was too young to raise a baby.
*** 1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings‎, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 93:It is impossible for an abortion clinic to have a waiting list of more than nine months.
*** 2014 January 20, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, “‘She. Herself. Naked.': The Art of He Chengyao”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 August 2023, Sinosphere‎:The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China. Her young parents, who worked in a pottery factory in Rongchang in present-day Chongqing municipality, conceived her while unmarried. “They were told by the factory, ‘Have an abortion or be fired’,” she said. They chose to keep her and were fired.
*** 2017 October 5, Ben Jacobs, The Guardian‎:Representative Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania will resign from Congress after claims that the anti-abortion Republican had urged a woman he was having an extramarital affair with to have an abortion.
* (now rare) An aborted foetus; an abortus. [from 16th c.]
** 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 657:‘It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth.’
** 1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own:The Fascist poem, one may fear, will be a horrid little abortion such as one sees in a glass jar in the museum of some county town.
* (figuratively) A misshapen person or thing; a monstrosity. [from 16th c.]
** 1846, Charles Dickens, chapter 10, in Pictures from Italy‎:Insomuch that I do honestly believe, there can be no place in the world, where such intolerable abortions, begotten of the sculptor’s chisel, are to be found in such profusion, as in Rome.
** 1889, Edward Bellamy, “To Whom This May Come”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, New York, page 459, column 2:His voice was the most pitiable abortion of a voice I had ever heard.
** 2000, Jules, “please dont buy beacon cd”, in alt.fan.allman-brothers (Usenet):Dickey on his own manages to turn a simple bo diddley 1-2-3-4 into an absolute abortion of a song.
** 2003, David Kerekes, Headpress 24: Powered by Love, page 133:an absolute abortion of a book
* (figuratively) Failure or abandonment of a project, promise, goal etc. [from 17th c.]
** 1800 September 23, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush‎:The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes.
** 2013, Fakhry A. Assaad, James W. LaMoreaux, Travis Hughes, Field Methods for Geologists and Hydrogeologists, →ISBN, page 314:The transfer or loss of the project manager before the project is completed will result in lost continuity and delay or the abortion of the project and/or the report.
** 2015, Gabriele Brandstetter, Poetics of Dance: Body, Image, and Space, →ISBN, page 73:[…] the abrupt abortion of the trip after eleven days.
* (biology) Arrest of development of any organ, so that it remains an imperfect formation or is absorbed. [from 18th c.]
* The cessation of an illness or disease at a very early stage.

#### Synonyms

* abort (obsolete), abortus
* (induced abortion): aborticide, feticide, foeticide, termination (of pregnancy)
* (act of terminating pregnancy): aborticide, embryoctony, feticide, foeticide, termination (of pregnancy)
* (spontaneous abortion): miscarriage, misbirth

#### Hyponyms

* accidental abortion
* ampullar abortion
* artificial abortion
* back alley abortion, back-alley abortion
* chemical abortion
* complete abortion
* contagious abortion
* early abortion
* elective abortion
* habitual abortion
* hysterotomy abortion
* imminent abortion
* incomplete abortion
* induced abortion
* inevitable abortion
* infected abortion
* infectious abortion
* instillation abortion
* late-term abortion
* lunchtime abortion
* medical abortion
* nontherapeutic abortion
* overdue abortion
* partial-birth abortion, partial birth abortion
* prolonged abortion
* septic abortion
* spontaneous abortion
* surgical abortion
* therapeutic abortion
* threatened abortion
* tubal abortion
* vacuum aspiration abortion

#### Derived terms

* abortifacient
* abortional
* abortion ban
* abortion clinic
* abortion doctor
* abortionee
* abortionism
* abortionist
* abortion mill
* abortion pill
* abortion rights, abortion-rights
* abortion tour
* abortion tourism
* abortion tourist
* abortion vaccine
* anti-abortion, antiabortion
* anti-abortionism, antiabortionism
* anti-abortionist, antiabortionist
* miniabortion
* missed abortion
* post-abortion, postabortion
* pre-abortion, preabortion
* pro-abortion, proabortion
* teleabortion

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Further reading

* abortion on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* boration, orbation, rainboot