See also: quick facts | abortion methods and footnote information (for specific references) | contraceptives For information on abortion complications see the article by Beverly McMillan, "How Safe Is Abortion? " on the Elliott Institute web site. An abortion survivor's testimony is available from Abortionfacts.com. First Trimester
Second Trimester
Third Trimester
Great care must be taken to prevent the uterus from being punctured during this procedure, which may cause hemorrhage and necessitate further surgery.[4] Also, infection can easily develop if any fetal or placental tissue is left behind in the uterus. This is the most frequent post-abortion complication. [5]
Dilatation (Dilation) and Curettage (D&C) This method should not be confused with routine D&C's done for reasons other than undesired pregnancy (to treat abnormal uterine bleeding, dysmenorrhea, etc.). [8]
RU 486 The RU 486 procedure requires at least three trips to the abortion facility.[11] In the first visit, the woman is given a physical exam, and if she has no obvious contra-indications ("red flags" such as smoking, asthma, high blood pressure, obesity, etc., that could make the drug deadly to her[12] ), she swallows the RU 486 pills. RU 486 blocks the action of progesterone, the natural hormone vital to maintaining the rich nutrient lining of the uterus. The developing baby starves as the nutrient lining disintegrates.[13] At a second visit 36 to 48 hours later, the woman is given a dose of artificial prostaglandins, usually misoprostol, which initiates uterine contractions and usually causes the embryonic baby to be expelled from the uterus. [14] Most women abort during the 4-hour waiting period at the clinic, but about 30% abort later at home, work, etc., [15] as many as 5 days later.[16] A third visit about 2 weeks later determines whether the abortion has occurred or a surgical abortion is necessary to complete the procedure (5 to 10% of all cases).[17] There are several serious well documented side effects associated with RU 486/prostaglandin abortions, including prolonged (up to 44 days) [18] and severe bleeding,[19] nausea, vomiting, [20] pain, [21] and even death. At least one woman in France died while others there suffered life-threatening heart attacks from the technique. [22] In U.S. trials conducted in 1995, one woman is known to have nearly died after losing half her blood and requiring emergency surgery. [23] Long term effects of the drug have not yet been sufficiently studied, but there are reasons to believe that RU 486 could affect not only a woman's current pregnancy, but her future pregnancies as well, potentially inducing miscarriages or causing severe malformations in later children. [24]
Methotrexate Originally designed to attack fast growing cells such as cancers by neutralizing the B vitamin folic acid necessary for cell division, methotrexate apparently attacks the fast growing cells of the trophoblast as well,[26] the tissue surronding the embryo that eventually gives rise to the placenta. The trophoblast not only functions as the "life support system" for the developing child, [27] drawing oxygen and nutrients from the mother's blood supply and disposing of carbon dioxide and waste products, [28] but also produces the hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) hormone which signals the corpus luteum to continue the production of progesterone necessary to prevent breakdown of the uterine lining and loss of the pregnancy. [29] Methotrexate initiaties the disintengration of that sustaining, protective, and nourishing environment. Deprived of the food, oxygen, and fluids he or she needs to survive, the baby dies. Three to seven days later (depending on the protocol used), a suppository of misoprostol (the same prostaglandin used with RU 486) is inserted into a woman's vagina to trigger expulsion of the tiny body of the child from the woman's uterus. Sometimes this occurs within the next few hours, but often a second dose of the prostaglandin is required, making the time lapse between the initial administration of methotrexate and the actual completion of the abortion as long as several weeks. [30] A woman may bleed for weeks (42 days in one study[31] ), even heavily, [32] and may abort anywhere -- at home, on the bus, at work, etc. [33] Those found to be still pregnant in later visits (at least 1 in 25) are given surgical abortions. [34] Even doctors who support abortion are reluctant to prescribe methotrexate for abortion because of its high toxicity and unpredictable side effects. [35] Those side effects commonly include nausea, pain, diarrhea, [36] as well as less visible but more serious effects such as bone marrow depression, severe anemia, liver damage and methotrexate-induced lung disease. [37] The manufacturer warns in the package insert that while methotrexate has shown itself useful in treating certain types of cancer and severe cases of arthritis and psoriasis, "deaths have been reported with the use of methotrexate," and recommends that its use be limited to "physicians whose knowledge and experience includes the use of antimetabolite therapy." [38] Though researchers performing methotrexate abortions have dismissed such concerns because of the low dosage used, [39] other doctors in the abortion trade have disagreed, [40] and the package insert clearly warns that "toxic effects may be related in frequency and severity to dose or frequency of administration but have been seen at all doses" (emphasis added). [41]
Dilatation (Dilation) and Evacuation (D&E) Dr. Warren Hern, a Boulder, Colorado abortionist who has performed a number of D&E abortions, says they can be particularly troubling to a clinic staff and worries that this may have an effect on the quality of care a woman receives. Hern also finds them traumatic for doctors too, saying "there is no possibility of denial of an act of destruction by the operator. It is before one's eyes. The sensation of dismemberment flow through the forceps like an electric current." [43]
Abortion Techniques: Instillation Methods
Partial-Birth Abortion This procedure is used to abort women who are 20 to 32 weeks pregnant -- or even later into pregnancy.* Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist reaches into the uterus, grabs the unborn baby's leg with forceps, and pulls the baby into the birth canal, except for the head, which is deliberately kept just inside the womb. (At this point in a partial-birth abortion, the baby is alive.) Then the abortionist jams scissors into the back of the baby's skull and spreads the tips of the scissors apart to enlarge the wound. After removing the scissors, a suction catheter is inserted into the skull and the baby's brains are sucked out. The collapsed head is then removed from the uterus.[63] * Babies born at 23 weeks or more often survive. This procedure eliminates that possibility.[62] The Partial-Birth Abortion procedure - used from the fifth month on - involves pulling a living baby feet-first out of the womb, except for the head, puncturing the skull and suctioning out the brain. The great majority of partial-birth abortions are performed on healthy babies, for entirely non-medical reasons. A partial-birth abortion is performed as follows:
The abortionist who invented this technique reports that he has performed over 700 of them, and he knows of another abortionist who has used a similar procedure on babies up to "32 weeks and later". The abortionist "said the drawings were accurate 'from a technical point of view'". Source: American Medical News (a publication of the American Medical Association), July 5, 1993, p 21. With partial birth abortion, "America is just inches from infanticide," said Carol Everett, a former abortion clinic owner. The gruesome nature of the partial birth procedure is indicative of the violent and brutal nature of all abortion methods. Alarmingly, in June 2000, the United States Supreme Court struck down Nebraska's Partial Birth Abortion Ban. In his dissenting opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, "The method of killing a human child --one cannot even accurately say an entirely unborn human child -- proscribed by this [Nebraska] statute is so horrible that the most clinical decsription of it evokes a shudder of revulsion." Responding to the Supreme Court's refusal to allow states to outlaw such procedures, Jack Willke, M.D. of Life Issues Institute wrote, "The Court has ruled that it is legal to directly kill a normal baby who has been 3/4 delivered. In the face of laws passed by overwhleming votes in over half the states to forbid this callous infanticide, the Court trampled on the rights and wishes of a great majority of the citizens of the U.S....This brutal extension of their 1973 Roe. v. Wade decision extinguished any hope that this present Court might show some mercy on these babies. It demonstrates to our nation that the only answer to the continuing abortion holocaust is to elect a president who will appoint federal judges who will respect the lives of all Americans, born and unborn, while at the same time offering their pregnant mothers any help they need to carry to term." See information at the Kaiser Foundation. NOTE:s The Kaiser Foundation is not a pro-life organization, but its statistics are useful. Information on state bans and restrictions on partial birth abortions and post viability is available here by state.
Hysterotomy This method offers the highest risk to the health of the mother, because the potential for rupture during subsequent pregnancies is appreciable. [65] In the first two years of legal abortion in New York State, the death rate from hysterotomy was 271.2 deaths per 100,000 cases. [66] Source: National Right to Life. "Abortion: Some Medical Facts" See footnote information for specific references. |
Suction Aspiration
