“Women who consider late-term abortion often do so from a place of desperation, and, perhaps, fear,” he said Tuesday. “Yet, abortion only complicates the difficulties in her situation — and late-term abortion involves not only real suffering for the fetus but also serious risks to maternal health,” added Mr. Roland, whose organization represents pregnancy care centers that assist pregnant women to raise their babies or find adoptive parents for them…

The researchers looked at data from 272 women who received an abortion at or after 20 weeks’ gestation and 169 women who had abortions in their first trimesters from 2008 to 2010. The women were part of the Turnaway Study, a project at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) that looks at the consequences of receiving or being denied a wanted abortion.

The researchers found that women in general delayed getting abortions if they are unsure they are pregnant, aren’t sure they want an abortion, and are disagreeing with the baby’s father.

Still, there were some differences in the two groups: The women seeking late-term abortions were more likely to be younger — ages 20-24 — than women who got earlier abortions, and the later-term patients waited far longer to confirm they were pregnant — they were often about 12 weeks gestation vs. five weeks gestation in the early-abortion group.