abortive

IPA: ʌbˈɔrtɪv

(obsolete) Someone or something born or brought forth prematurely; an abortion.
(obsolete) A fruitless effort.
(obsolete) A medicine that causes abortion, an abortifacient.
(obsolete) A medicine or treatment acting to halt or slow the progress of a disease.

(obsolete) Produced by abortion; born prematurely and therefore unnatural.
Coming to nothing; failing in its effect. .
(biology) Imperfectly formed or developed; rudimentary; sterile.
(medicine, pharmacology, rare) Causing abortion; abortifacient.
(medicine) Cutting short; acting to halt or slow the progress (of a disease).
(medicine, of a disease) Having a short and mild progression, without pronounced symptoms.
Made from the skin of a still-born animal.

Examples of "abortive" in Sentences

The attempt was abortive.
The movement quickly proved abortive.
The mission ultimately proved abortive.
The abortive effort ended in bankruptcy.
He vetoed it because, he believes, EC is an "abortive" drug.
The term abortive organ has been thus applied to above structure (as
James, cut off in the prime of life, may almost be called the abortive
There is another grand class of facts relating to what are called abortive organs.
Mitt Romney, as Governor of Massachussetts, vetoed a contraception bill claiming the emergency contraception was an "abortive" drug.
The "abortive" reference, though, was to an interesting little fight within the Clinton campaign in which Verdi was on the losing side.
Romney this week toughened his language in decrying the new health care rule, on Monday saying the requirement to cover "contraceptives, morning-after pills, in other words abortive pills," was a "violation of conscience."
"This just might be the same administration that said that the churches and the institutions they run such as schools and…adoptions agencies, hospitals, that they have to provide for their employees free of charge contraceptives, morning after pills, in other words abortive pills, and the like, at no cost," Romney added.