Government & Politics
This chart demonstrates when women have abortions measured in the number of weeks from their last menstrual period. Eighty-eight percent of abortions occur in the first 12 weeks. Source: Guttmacher Institute.

Abortion Bill Would Define Life as Beginning at Conception

By |

Women who decide to seek an abortion rarely make that decision after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, according to an international research institute on reproductive health. But a legislative proposal in Iowa uses scientifically debatable assertions about fetal pain to target those few women. The proposal also carries a sweeping provision that could have major legal consequences for any woman who chooses to get an abortion, physicians and legal experts say.