therapeutic abortion
- noun
- /ˌθɛrəˈpjuːtɪk əˈbɔːrʃən/
- Specialized
:
aborto terapéutico
- Due to her severe medical conditions, she made the difficult decision to undergo a therapeutic abortion as advised by her health care team.
Examples
-
That's a therapeutic abortion.
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Exceptions were made for situations in which the mother's life was endangered, and hospitals had therapeutic abortion committees that met to rule on whether an individual case fell under that rule.
Blog text (5) -
The hospital, stating that "this is a Catholic country," denied her a therapeutic abortion, despite three days of miscarrying and no chance of survival for the fetus.
Blog text (33) -
There are absolutely no winners in a scheme where a pregnant woman's health condition needs to be left to deteriorate to the point where it becomes life-threatening before a therapeutic abortion is allowed.
Blog text (33) -
The doctor recommended a therapeutic abortion because the pregnancy posed a serious risk to the mother's health.
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After the exam revealed complications, the physician explained that a therapeutic abortion might be necessary to protect the mother's life.
Synonyms
∞
4.2
Ending a pregnancy so it does not lead to the birth of a baby
2
5.0
To end a pregnancy on purpose using medicine or an operation
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'therapeutic' (relating to treatment/healing) modifies 'abortion' (medical termination), so the meaning—an abortion carried out for medical/health reasons—is directly inferable. The pattern is standard medical/adjectival composition and is common cross-linguistically, so learners who know the constituent words can readily understand it.
Etymology
Therapeutic abortion comes from two parts: therapeutic, meaning 'for treatment', and abortion, meaning 'ending a pregnancy'. The phrase shows a medical act that ends a pregnancy to protect the mother's health, so it means an abortion done for medical reasons.