ABSTRACT
Termination of pregnancy beyond the twelfth week has been less easily routinized than termination during the first trimester, in part because different technical approaches are required. Techniques for second-trimester abortions were standardized first in places where they were most often requested and performed. Without the sustained scrutiny of such government agencies as the Abortion Surveillance Division of the Federal Centers for Disease Control, medical consensus about second-trimester abortion techniques would not have formed so rapidly. The statistically "safer" technology did not eliminate the "psychological burden" associated with second-trimester abortion but only shifted it. The two criteria for determining the best method for second-trimester abortions were the relative safety of the procedure (as shown by epidemiological studies) and its cost-effectiveness. A remarkable difference existed between the impact of state law on physicians' judgments about second-trimester abortions and that of the Supreme Court's 1973 rulings.
