It is fitting that our discussion of artificial methods of birth control lead to a discussion of abortion, because the contraceptive mentality (saying "No" to the potential for new life) and abortion (eliminating new life) are clearly entwined.

   I. Facts

        A. all forms of induced abortion involve the premeditated killing of the unborn baby in the mother's womb

        B. more than 1.5 million annually in the United States alone

        C. estimated 36 million to 53 million abortions around the world annually

   II. Abortion Methods and Their Complications

        A. Early Abortion

             SUCTION or DILATION AND CURETTAGE (D&C)

Most abortions are done using these methods at around eleven to twelve weeks gestation. It is important to note that, as early as nine weeks, the unborn baby responds to touch and can feel pain. The fetal heart is beating, and eyes, fingers and toes are distinguishable. In a suction abortion, the abortionist inserts a long hollow tube through the cervix and then, with powerful vacuum force, tears the placenta away from the uterine wall, dismembering the baby (fetus) and drawing his remains into an attached jar. In a D&C, the abortionist inserts a loop-shaped knife into the mother's dilated cervix and by scraping the uterine wall, dismembers the baby (fetus). To ensure that the procedure is complete and no body parts remain in the womb (where they may cause infection), the abortionist or nurse must "reassemble" the fetal body to ensure that head, torso, and limbs are present. (A similar procedure, dilation and evacuation [D&E], "extends both the traditional D and C and the vacuum curettage into the second trimester. D and E is espe-cially appropriate for procedures done in the range of 13 – 16 weeks gestation, although many proponents use this method up through 20+ weeks.")
Complications include:

• laceration of cervix by suction apparatus or knife
• hemorrhage
• perforated uterus
• laceration of urinary bladder and ureters
• pulmonary embolism (air bubble in bloodstream)
• laceration of bowel and subsequent infection
• shock
• reactions to anesthesia, including bronchial obstruction, anaphylactic shock, and cardiac arrest
• reaction to blood transfusion
• laparotomy (surgical section of abdominal wall)
• hysterectomy
• retained tissue
• death of mother
• much higher risk of developing breast cancer  .

      B. Late Abortion

           SALINE

After sixteen weeks, the baby (fetus) is too large to be killed by the procedures mentioned above, so abortionists resort to saline injection (salt poisoning). It is important to note that, since eleven weeks gestation, all of the baby's organs have been complete and functioning. At sixteen weeks, medical photographers and ultrasonographers have pictured unborn babies kicking and swimming — even sucking their thumbs. Shockingly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 77,000 American babies are aborted each year at this age or older

. In a saline abortion, the abortionist inserts a long needle through the mother's abdomen, siphons off some of the amniotic fluid that protects the baby and replaces that amount with a saline (salt) solution that both poisons the baby as he swallows and burns away his skin. The mother goes into labor and delivers a dead infant.

Complications include:

• transplacental hemorrhage
• reactions to anesthesia
• hypernatremia
• edema (swelling) of brain
• convulsions
• coma
• kidney failure
• heart failure
• failure to abort after death of baby
• baby born alive and badly burned

Similar to saline abortions are those by the injection of prostaglandins (powerful hormones that induce violent labor and premature birth). Abortionists may inject toxin to kill the baby first. "Clinicians are performing an increasing percentage of second trimester instillation abortions by combinations of the just described methods."

        C. Late Abortion

            HYSTEROTOMY

Similar to a cesarean section, this late-term form of abortion involves removal of the baby from the uterus. The child is killed or left to die. Complications include: • hemorrhage • reaction to blood transfusion • reaction to anesthesia • hysterectomy • high mortality rate for mothers

        D. RU-486  

Also known as the "abortion pill," RU-486 actually involves a cumbersome and expensive four-step regimen that includes the taking of several powerful drugs and at least four visits to the abortionist. Janice Raymond, self-proclaimed "feminist" and associate director of the Institute on Women and Technology at MIT, says, "Claims that RU 486 abortion is private and demedicalized are belied by the number of medical visits and the whole drug cocktail a woman may be exposed to." By preventing the action of progesterone in the womb, RU-486 works as an abortifacient for the first eight to ten weeks after conception. RU-486 is used with prostaglandins (misoprostol) to increase lethality.

Complications include:

• nausea
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• severe and sometimes prolonged bleeding (in some women, even two months after discontinuance) I
• failure to expel baby (this happens in one out of every twenty cases, . so another method of abortion is sought)
• cardiovascular shock
• maternal death  

       E. PROSTAGLANDIN-INDUCED ABORTION

As mentioned under entry for saline abortion and RU-486, prostaglandins are powerful hormones that induce violent contractions of the womb and expulsion of the baby.

Complications include:

• retained fetal tissue
• readmission for surgery
• septicemia (massive infection)
• pelvic inflammatory disease
• peritonitis
• blood dyscrasias — afibrinogenanemia (failure of blood to clot)
• bleeding
• lung abscess (aspiration of vomitus during anesthesia)
• deep vein thrombosis
• death of mother
• Post-Abortion Syndrome

         F. DILATION AND EXTRACTION (D&X)

Developed by an abortionist who notes that "most surgeons find [fetal] dismemberment at 20 weeks and beyond to be difficult due to the toughness of fetal tissues at this stage," D&X requires the mother's cervix to be dilated and the placenta (bag of waters) to be broken. The abortionist's assistant then uses ultrasound to scan the mother's abdomen and to locate the lower extremities of the unborn baby. Using forceps, the abortionist pulls the baby, by its legs, down into the vagina. The abortionist uses his hands to pull the fetal arms and shoulders from the womb and to turn the baby on his or her stomach. The baby's head, which is too large to pass through, remains lodged at the cervix. Holding sharp, curved scissors, the abortionist follows the curve of the fetal spine to find the base of the skull. "He then forces the scissors into the base of the skull. Having entered the skull he then spreads the scissors to enlarge the opening. He then removes the scissors and introduces a suction catheter into the hole and evacuates the skull contents." Once the skull is empty, it is more readily crushed, enabling the baby's body to be removed entirely from his or her mother. This is the D&X procedure as described by Ohio abortionist Martin Haskell, who claims to have performed more than seven hundred such procedures in his two offices.  Some two hundred of these procedures are done each year in the state of Ohio alone.

In September, 1993 Brenda Pratt Shafer, a registered nurse with thirteen years of experience, was assigned by her nursing agency to an abortion clinic. Since Nurse Shafer considered herself "very pro-choice, " she didn't think this assignment would be a problem. She was wrong.

This is what Nurse Shafer saw:

I stood at the doctor's side and watched him perform a partial-birth abortion on a woman who was six months pregnant. The baby's heartbeat was clearly visible on the ultrasound screen. The doctor delivered the baby's body and arms, everything but his little head. The baby's body was moving. His little fingers were clasping together. He was kicking his feet. The doctor took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the back of the baby's head, and the baby's arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall. Then the doctor opened the scissors up. Then he stuck the high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby's brains out. Now the baby was completely limp.

I never went back to the clinic. But I am still haunted by the face of that little boy. It was the most perfect, angelic face I have ever seen.

The "Partial Birth Abortion" Bill, which would have made this technique illegal, was vetoed by President Clinton on April 10, 1996.

      III. Effects of Abortion on Subsequent Childbearing
• potential sterility
• 50 percent increase in spontaneous miscarriage
• 200 percent increase in ectopic pregnancy

All forms of abortion may include a reaction to or admission of participation in death of one's own infant. This may manifest itself as severe and prolonged depression, mourning, sense of loss (sometimes delayed for years), plus:

• 40 percent increase in mental retardation among children
• prolonged labor
• rupture of uterine scar (post-hysterectomy)
• development of Rh antibodies in Rh-negative mother
• cervical incompetence (after early abortions) resulting in miscarriages