In late September, cable news host Chuck Todd grilled Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones about whether laws should restrict late-term abortions performed after 20 weeks.

Jones said he was not in favor of "anything that is going to infringe on a woman's right and her freedom to choose." He also said laws already restrict abortion after 20 weeks, which can only be performed in Alabama if pregnancy threatens the health of the mother.

"I support the current law on a woman's freedom to choose," Jones said, "which has been in place for decades, where late-term abortions are permitted to protect the life or health of the mother."

Kayla Moore, wife of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, has accused Jones of supporting "full-term" abortion, a phrase that suggests the procedure would be available for women up until the final weeks and days of a 40-week pregnancy. That would be far beyond the limit embraced by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists - which said the procedure should be available until the fetus becomes viable, a window that stretches from about 20 to 25 weeks.

"Who is for full-term abortion?" Kayla Moore asked at a November campaign event, referring to Jones.

An examination of statistics compiled by the Alabama Department of Public Health shows that late-term procedures are almost non-existent in the state. Three out of 6,642 abortions performed in Alabama in 2016 occurred after 20 weeks, according to the agency.

Post-fertilization age at time of abortion

1-5 weeks 6-10 weeks 11-15 weeks 16-19 weeks 20 or more weeks 2,560 3,093 752 234 3

Source: Alabama Department of Public Health

Those numbers have remained consistent since 2012, when the department began tracking the post-fertilization age of aborted fetuses, and have never topped four late-term abortions in any given year.

All the abortions performed after 19 weeks in 2016 occurred at hospitals and not in one of the state's five abortion clinics.

Jones has not hidden his support for abortion rights during his campaign for U.S. Senate, despite polls that show most of the state's residents oppose it in all or most cases. The state regularly ranks as one of the most religious and conservative in the nation, and opposition to abortion runs deep among Republican voters.

Moore has placed his opposition to abortion at the center of his campaign. He said he wants to make it illegal. The GOP candidate and some of his supporters have adopted the hashtag #AbortionJones to refer to his opponent online.

Several states have imposed bans on abortion after 20 weeks, and Congress has considered a nationwide ban. U.S. senators also confirm federal judges and Supreme Court justices, who could consider challenges to the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion.

The number of abortions performed in Alabama has fallen from 9,523 in 2011 to 6,642 last year. That number mirrors a decrease in the rate of teen pregnancy that has also occurred in recent years.

Only 15 percent of the abortions performed in Alabama occurred after ten weeks in 2016, and only about a quarter of those occurred between 16 and 19 weeks.

Alabama law allows for abortion for any reason before 20 weeks, but places several restrictions on the procedure. Women are required to receive counseling 48 hours prior to receiving an abortion and must receive an ultrasound. Health plans available on the federal exchange cannot include coverage for abortion in Alabama except in cases of rape, incest or health of the mother.

"As far as abortion, I will not fund Planned Parenthood and I will work to overturn Roe vs. Wade," Moore said at a recent campaign event.

That position is common among Alabama conservatives. Lawmakers have passed several regulations on abortion providers that could have put some of the state's abortion clinics out of business, but many of those laws have been overturned in the courts.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of abortions nationwide dropped by more than 20 percent between 2005 and 2014.