Should I Have An Abortion?

If you are considering an abortion, you need answers to the following questions:

Have you confirmed your pregnancy?
Are you sure you have a viable, uterine pregnancy?
Do you know about abortion procedures?
Do you know your legal rights before and after abortion?                                                                                      
What other options do you have?
What do you understand about fetal development?
Are you aware of the potential emotional complications following an abortion?
Are you aware of the potential physical complications following an abortion?
What if you’ve already had an abortion?

                                         Pregnancy Confirmation

A viable pregnancy means one that is capable of continuing on its own. Approximately 30% of all pregnancies result in a miscarriage. An abortion performed when a pregnancy is not viable can result in unnecessary expense.  Many crisis pregnancy centers, such as ours, offer sonograms free of charge to determine viability if you are considering an abortion.

Abortion Procedures

Before fourteen weeks

Suction Aspiration

For this procedure you lie on your back with your feet in stirrups, and the doctor applies a shot of anesthetic to your cervix to reduce pain. Your cervical muscles are stretched with cone-shaped rods until the opening is wide enough to allow the abortion tools to pass into your uterus. Then the doctor guides the suction devise through the cervix and into your uterus. When the suction machine is turned on, you feel the strong force of the vacuum which is used to pull the placenta and fetus into parts small enough to pass out of the body through the suction tube. During surgery the doctor cannot see the inside of your uterus and operates by touch alone, trying to detach the fetus from the wall of the uterus with the powerful suction tip.

Dilation and Curettage

The doctor opens your cervix, as described above, but in this case the abortion is done with a loop-shaped knife which he uses to scrape the wall of your uterus, cutting the fetus and placenta into smaller parts and pulling them out of your body through the cervix.

RU 486

This is an abortion pill that is taken very early in pregnancy, most likely before the ninth week. Your doctor would either inject you with mifepristone or give you an oral dose. Your body will begin to behave hormonally as if you were not pregnant and you will experience a heavy period. Two days later you should return to the clinic for a check-up. Next, you will be given an injection of prostaglandin. The prostaglandin causes your cervix to dilate, and your uterus will push the fetus from your body, similar to labor. This injection can cause serious cramping, bleeding and heart problems. If the injection of prostaglandin is not used, RU 486 may result in a failed abortion. The doctor will then have to surgically extract the fetus.

After Fourteen Weeks

Dilation and Evacuation

Because the bones of the fetus are larger and stronger by this time, the doctor uses a medical instrument resembling pliers to pull the fetus into smaller parts and remove those parts from your body through the cervix. This procedure requires that your cervix be opened wider than with "Suction" or "D&C" methods, and there is greater risk of harm to your reproductive organs.

After Sixteen Weeks

Saline or Prostaglandin

These substances are injected into the amniotic fluid which surrounds the fetus in your uterus. To do this, the doctor inserts a long needle into your abdomen until the tip of the needle penetrates the uterus. He then injects one of these substances into the amniotic fluid. Saline is a poisonous substance which eventually kills the fetus. Prostaglandin causes the muscle tissue of the mother to push the fetus out of the uterus. Both saline and Prostaglandin methods would require you to "give birth" to a dead fetus. The labor which precedes birth is usually long and painful.

Later Term Abortion

Dilations and Extraction (Partial Birth)

Laminaria (a type of weed that expands when moist) is used to dilate the cervix over a two-day period. On the third day, the membranes are ruptured. An ultrasound is used to locate the lower extremities. The doctor then uses large forceps to grasp a leg and pull it down into the vagina. After the body is delivered, the skull is lodged at the cervical opening. The doctor makes an incision in the base of the fetal skull, inserts a suction catheter and removes the brain and tissue from the skull. This technique may be safer than a D and E abortion because the fetus is not dismembered in the uterus, however, damage may occur due to extensive stretching of the cervix during the procedure.