Complications may rarely occur from an abortion done at any stage of pregnancy, however. Ideally, if an abortion is to be done at all, it should be done at the earliest possible moment after conception. Spontaneous abortion may occur when the body, for reasons not fully understood, rejects a pregnancy and expels the embryo or fetus. A therapeutic abortion is any abortion done to protect the health of the mother. While abortion may or may not be the best choice in some circumstances, many people may feel strongly enough about these issues that they choose to have a therapeutic abortion.
Abortion is presently the legal right of women in the United States.
However, because transmission of HIV to newborns occurs most often by direct contact with the infected mother's blood during the actual birth, researchers have been focusing on ways to reduce the amount of virus present in the circulating blood at the time of birth, and thus lessen the chance of transmission during birth. These exciting results seem to prove that lowering the amount of free virus in the circulating blood is the key to keeping the transmission rate of HIV during birth down. For additional information, see maternal-fetal transmission . Inc. Complete information on the Glossary and how you can make a donation to ARIC to receive a printed copy of this useful medical reference tool is available at this page .