Legal at One Clinic, Illegal at Another: How Abortion Bans Make Gestational Age Even Less Precise

November 10, 2022

(STAT News) – Gestational age is a measure we all use. We talk about it so much we hardly realize we’re talking about it at all. It’s written into laws and news reports, discussed from the NICU to the playground. A mom might say she gave birth at 36 weeks; a neonatologist might talk about the case of a 24-weeker. A law might limit abortion after 15 weeks; a journalist might write about a severe fetal diagnosis received at 19 weeks. Those sentences make gestational age sound like a certainty, a fact, as incontrovertible as saying that today is Thursday. But that’s wishful thinking. Instead, gestational age is an estimate. Carefully thought out, obsessively researched, but an estimate all the same. (Read More)