Table 2: Termination of pregnancy by the type of birth defects. Group I Group II Total Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent 14 19 3 14 7 26 8 21 7 8 6 44 24 7.0 9.5 1.5 7.0 3.5 12.9 4.0 10.4 3.5 4.0 3.0 21.9 11.9 37 50 9 48 5 35 7 28 25 19 0 92 47 9.2 12.4 2.2 11.9 1.2 8.7 1.7 7.0 6.2 4.7 0.0 22.9 11.7 51 69 12 62 12 61 15 49 32 27 6 136 71 Journal of Pregnancy Type of anomaly Down syndrome Hydrocephaly Chromosomal anomaly Limb deformation Heart anomaly Hydrops fetalis Spinal muscular atrophy Oligohydramnios Microcephaly Polyhydramnios Major thalassemia Neural tube defects Others (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) Table 3: List of maternal indications of therapeutic abortion in Iran. Any of the cardiac valve diseases with functional class 3-4 heart failure that is not reversible to class 2 Any kind of acute heart disease except coronary heart disease that has reached functional class 3-4 (e.g., myocarditis and pericarditis) History of dilated cardiomyopathy in previous pregnancies Marfan syndrome, when ascending aorta is wider than 5 cm Eisenmenger’s syndrome Pregnancy-induced fatty liver Grade 3 esophageal varicosities History of esophageal varicosities hemorrhage followed by portal hypertension Uncontrollable autoimmune hepatitis (10) Renal failure (11) Hypertension which is not controllable with permitted drugs during pregnancy (12) Any of the pulmonary diseases that lead to pulmonary hypertension even to a mild degree (emphysema, ﬁbrosis, diﬀuse bronchiectasis) (13) Any infection with HIV virus which has entered into the phase of AIDS disease (14) Hypercoagulability when using heparin leads to progression of other diseases that can threat’s motheren life (15) Active uncontrollable SLE which has involved a major organ (16) Vasculitis (when major organs are involved) (17) All CNS masses with considering their type and location, when beginning the treatment is dangerous to fetus and without treatment mother-life may be threatened (18) Pemphigus vulgaris and severe generalized psoriasis and advanced melanoma (19) Multidrug-resistant epilepsies (20) MS cases in which the patient is disabled (21) Myasthenia gravis (22) Some type of motor neuron diseases like ALS which is intensiﬁed following pregnancy and will seriously endanger mother’s life One-third of women with a fetus with birth defect(s) had consanguineous marriage. Most of them reported to have at least one ultrasound examination during the pregnancy. Major anomalies for abortion included neural tube defects, limb deformation hydrops fetalis, hydrocephaly, and chro- mosomal anomalies. Our ﬁndings were consistent with other studies previously reported in terms of demographic and socioeconomic indicators [6–9]. However, one of the main reasons for the termination of pregnancies was thalassemia in previous studies where it was rare in our investigation. This 8.5 11.4 2.0 10.3 2.0 10.1 2.5 8.1 5.3 4.5 1.0 22.6 11.8 3