system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 How do partial birth or late term abortions actually work?
gpt
A "partial birth abortion" is a type of late-term abortions, but not all late-term abortions are partial-birth.

A partial-birth abortion is properly called an "intact dilation and extraction" abortion procedure; it involves a partial delivery of the (almost universally non-viable) fetus. The cervix is dilated, a feticide is usually used to terminate the fetus, and then the fetus is extracted intact through the vagina. 

The reason this is done *usually* has to do with a desire to keep the fetus intact, typically for grieving purposes. It's usually done in response to a miscarriage in which the fetus has died but has not been expelled, when the baby will be born with significant developmental defects, or when the fetus is threatening the life of the mother.

You will occasionally hear reference to "scissors through the back of the neck." That does not happen often, if ever. The only time I've ever heard of it happening was in connection with someone who was committing horrific malpractice (of which "scissors through the back of the fetus's neck" abortions were only *part*) and who is currently in jail for doing so.