Term	Abortion
Synonym
Related Term
Source of Definition
Short Definition
Statistical Activity	Demography

Definition
Foetal loss excluding stillbirths, usually during the first 20 weeks of gestation. Induced abortions are those initiated voluntarily with the intention of terminating a pregnancy. All other abortions are called spontaneous, even if an external cause is involved such as injury or high fever.

All abortion statistics and derived abortion rates released by Statistics New Zealand are based on the number of legally induced abortions. No information is available on spontaneous or illegal abortion.

Example