Photo: Cover photo for the study “Young, Poor and Pregnant: the Psychology of Teenage Motherhood,” by developmental psychologist Judith S. Musick, 1995.

By TATIANA PROPHET

How did I find out that most late-term abortions are not medically necessary? Most of the data came from choice advocates themselves, who warn that women seeking late-term abortion face significant barriers: how far they must travel, getting the finances together, not having insurance, indecision and even disagreement with their romantic partner.

Stop for a second: Late-term abortions are extremely rare, you may have heard. And that would be correct: 1 percent to 1.3 percent of all abortion procedures are post-21-weeks gestation, according to CDC figures. The rest of the story, however, is that so many abortions are performed each year (they peaked in 1990 at 1.6 million) – that 1 percent to 1.3 percent is still a large figure: 6,000 to 20,000 well-developed fetuses aborted every year.