The termination of pregnancy before the foetus is able to survive outside the mother or is considered legally viable. Spontaneous abortion later in the pregnancy may be caused by maternal factors such as reproductive system disorders. Missed abortion describes retention of the products of conception for a prolonged time after the foetus has died.
Therapeutic abortion is the termination of pregnancy by choice.
In many countries, the legalization of abortion has been fairly recent. Those who support abortion argue that women have the right to choose whether to bear a child, and that legal abortion makes the procedure safer. Improved medical techniques, making a foetus viable from a younger age, undermine the currently accepted 24-week limit for abortion. The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology 2. Abortion Bloomsbury Thematic Dictionary of Quotations 3.