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Abortion An abortion is a termination of a pregnancy. This results in killing an unborn baby. The technical name for this type of abortion is a procured abortion, however some people do not like to use the term procured as it means killing so they call it a termination. Sometimes abortions can occur naturally because the baby does not develop normally or the mother may have an injury, which would prevent her from carrying the pregnancy to term. This type of abortion is called a spontaneous abortion, which is usually known as a miscarriage. Abortion used to be a crime and in some countries like Ireland it still is. Each year 140,000 abortions take place without the consent of the father. Even if the father of the baby is married to the expectant mother he still has no rites and cannot stop the abortion. In 1967 David Steel introduced a bill, which became the abortion act. This said that an abortion could take place for up to 28 weeks. However now it has been amended to 24 weeks, because now doctors can keep babies alive from 24 weeks. After 24 weeks abortions are very rare but if two doctors decide that it is appropriate to still have an abortion because of the risk to the mother or the baby then it could take place. T