section_path: Motivation/Fetal health
section_name: Fetal health
paragraph_text: Fetal health
  
  Congenital disorders, revealed by prenatal screening, motivate some women to seek abortions. Health outcomes of preterm births include a significant probability of long-term neurodevelopmental impairment before gestational age of 29 weeks, with a higher probability with decreasing gestational age.
  
  In the United States, public opinion shifted after television personality Sherri Finkbine 's was exposed to thalidomide, a teratogen, in her fifth month of pregnancy. Unable to obtain a legal abortion in the United States, Finkbine traveled to Sweden. From 1962 to 1965, an outbreak of German measles left 15,000 babies with severe birth defects. In 1967, the American Medical Association publicly supported liberalization of abortion laws. A National Opinion Research Center poll in 1965 showed 73% supported abortion when the mother's life was at risk, 57% when birth defects were present and 59% for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.