At 17:18 21-12-00 +0000, you wrote:
>Adrian Hon wrote:
> >
> >Surely you mean miscarriage?
> >
>Yes, of course. Bad translation, because in Pt there is just one
>word.
>
>Alberto Monteiro
IIRC, in U.S. *medical* usage, "abortion" refers to a pregnancy ending for
_any_ reason, whether spontaneous or due to some kind of
intervention. (Actually, I think that "miscarriage" is used if it happens
prior to a certain number of weeks, and "abortion" after that, but the
medical books are in the other room and I am too lazy to go look up when
the change is made.) In *common* usage, however, most people use
"abortion" to mean termination of a pregnancy by deliberate medical
intervention. To make a distinction, the term "spontaneous abortion" is
sometimes used for a pregnancy that ends by itself.
I don't know what the precise *legal* definition is: it just struck me
that a law outlawing "abortion" could, if the medical definition were used,
make naturally-occurring spontaneous abortions (later-term "miscarriages")
illegal, too, though it escapes me who could be charged with the
crime. (I'll leave it to someone else to come up with a play on words
using term "miscarriage of justice" . . . )
-- Ronn! :)
