incomplete abortion
- noun
- /ˌɪnkəmˈpliːt əˈbɔːrʃən/
- Specialized
:
aborto incompleto
- MISSOURI: In April, the Senate passed a measure that would require any provider administering medication for abortion to obtain an insurance policy to cover potential liability if an infant is born as the result of an incomplete abortion.
Examples
-
After the incomplete abortion, the patient experienced significant complications that required hospitalization.
-
The doctor explained that she had suffered an incomplete abortion and required further treatment to ensure her recovery.
-
"Cause of death: heart failure secondary to assault and battery, as well as the weakened condition of the victim following an incomplete abortion."
Fiction book (2002) -
Women may need to seek medical assistance if they experience symptoms following an incomplete abortion.
Synonyms
A pregnancy that ends while some tissue stays in the womb
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from 'incomplete' (lacking required parts) modifying 'abortion' (termination of pregnancy): it denotes an abortion in which some products remain. This is a straightforward adjective+noun composition (albeit clinical in register) and follows common cross‑linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the meaning.
Etymology
Incomplete abortion comes from its parts: incomplete and abortion, where abortion means 'ending a pregnancy' and incomplete means 'not finished'. It gives the image of some pregnancy tissue still left in the womb, so it means 'an ending of a pregnancy' where not all the tissue has left and more treatment may be needed.
