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Abortion Procedures

These are text descriptions to answer the questions "What is abortion?" and "How does it work?". If you have questions like "What does it feel like?" or "What are the risks?" then check out the FAQs for honest answers to those questions and more.

The Very Earliest Abortions Are Chemical Abortions...

First Trimester Abortion - Performed up until 14 weeks, these are known as early surgical abortions and are the most common and least risky abortion procedures. They include suction abortion and D&C.

Second Trimester Abortion - Performed after 13 weeks, these are not as common and carry higher risk than earlier abortions, these are not recommended unless necessary to save the life or health of the mother.

Third Trimester Abortion - The most risky procedures. These include partial-birth abortion which is a full term abortion that carries no known medical benefit to the mother.

The Earliest Abortions:

Chemical Abortions: The Pill, RU486, methotrexate, Norplant, IUD’s, prostaglandin’s, and Depo Provera all cause what could be described as early abortions. You may not be aware of the fact that the Pill has a "back up" abortifacient action that works to kill a baby very early in its development if ovulation occurs and conception takes place. With some of the new "mini-pills," research shows that ovulation takes place in 67-81% of the women who use these birth control pills.

Dr. Ronald Chez, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), publicly stated that the new Pills of today, with their lower estrogen dose, allow ovulation up to 50% of the time! It is estimated that Chemical "Contraceptives" cause between 7 to 12 million early abortions each year in America (Source: Study of Abortion Deaths Ad Hoc Commission 1995). Most women using the Pill (and other "birth control" methods listed above) are not usually aware of this. If you are strongly personally prolife (whatever political position you hold), you may be disturbed upon reading this. You may want to read up on some of the other methods available. 

Morning After Pill: You may not realize it, but the "Morning After Pill" is just a high dose of the Pill. Along with preventing pregnancy from occuring, it also causes some of the earliest abortions. It is considered safe but it is not risk free. Do not use this method without understanding what you are doing. Often, there is already a genetically complete growing human being inside a woman when she takes this pill. Visit Pregnancy: The Final Frontier and read about a teen who nearly took this but couldn't get it. Today she has a beautiful son who she loves more than anything.

RU-486: Much talked about in the news, this early abortion method can be used up into the second month of pregnancy. It works by blocking progesterone, a natural hormone crucial during pregnancy. Without it, the uterine lining can not provide food, fluid or oxygen to the developing baby. The lining disintegrates and a second drug is given to make the uterus contract to expel the baby. Women who abort using RU-486 experience nausea, severe cramping, vomiting, and bleeding. The worst part is that instead of being over in 10 to 20 minutes like an early surgical abortion, this type of abortion can last for a week and risks the woman being confronted with a tiny little body at the end. 

First Trimester Abortion Procedures:

Manual Vacuum Aspiration: There are two types of suction abortion available. The first is called manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) which is performed using the suction of a manual syringe to pull the baby out of the uterus. MVA is possible up until 10 weeks after a woman's last menstrual period. 

How it is performed:

• The vagina is washed with antiseptic to prevent infection.
• A painkiller may be injected into or near the cervix.
• The cervix may be opened using dilators or a dilator may be inserted the night before to stretch it open before the procedure.
• A tube is inserted through the vagina and cervix and into the uterus.
• A hand-held pump is used to terminate the fetus and extract it from the uterus.

Dilation and suction Curettage (D&C): This is a step between MVA and a D&E (see below). This procedure is used from 6 to 14 weeks after a woman's last menstrual period. 

The time an MVA and D&C can be used overlap and the doctor will pick the most suitable procedure. Pregnancies past 6 weeks may require a stronger suction than what MVA provides to be able to empty the uterus, and pregnancies past 10 weeks definitely do as the baby is larger and more fully developed. (Pictured: Preborn at 8 weeks.) 

A machine-operated suction tube (29 times stronger than a home vacuum cleaner) is carefully inserted into the uterus. The powerful suction tears the developing baby apart limb from limb and sucks it from the womb along with the placenta. The baby's remains are deposited into an attached waste bottle. A curette (a sharp knife in a loop shape) is inserted and used to scrape away any of the baby or the placenta that remains.

How it is performed:

• The vagina is washed with antiseptic to prevent infection.
• A painkiller is injected into or near the cervix.
• The cervix is opened with dilators or a dilator may be inserted the night before to stretch it open before the procedure.
• A tube attached to a suction machine is inserted through the vagina and cervix and into the uterus.
• The machine is turned on. It sounds like the suction machine from a dentists office. Some clinics offer a quite, wall mounted unit so that the woman doesn't permanently associate the sound with an abortion.
• All or most of the developing baby and placenta are sucked out of the uterus.
• A curette may then be used to scrape away any remaining pieces to insure infection does not later occur.

Second Trimester Abortions:

Dilation and Extraction (D&E): This procedure is used after 13 weeks and does not rely primarily on suction. The cervix is dilated and the unborn child is dismembered with plier-like forceps. Force is needed to pull the baby apart. The instrument is used to seize a leg or other part of the body and then, with a twisting motion, tear it from the baby's body. The baby's spine is snapped and the skull crushed. (Pictured: Preborn at 14 weeks.) 

How it is performed:

• The vagina is washed with antiseptic to prevent infection.
• A special dilator will be inserted the night before that slowly stretches the cervix open.
• Antibiotics may be given to prevent infection.
• Painkillers are given through an IV. (Needle inserted into the hand or arm with a tube attached.)
• A local painkiller is injected into or near the cervix.
• The dilator is removed.
• The unborn baby (fetus) is removed using medical instruments, suction and a curette.

Saline amniocentesis: A concentrated salt solution is injected with an amniocenteses needle into the amniotic fluid. The baby breathes and swallows it and dies over an hour later of acute salt poisoning. The mother then delivers a dead burned baby sometimes after feeling the baby convulse, jerk and kick for at least an hour as he dies. Use has declined because of dangers for the mother and because sometimes the baby survives. (Emotional trauma is a big risk for this one! I would beg anyone considering an abortion to never pick this option. If you're far enough along, you will feel the baby move and jerk around as he or she dies. Having personally known women who bear emotional scars from this type of procedure, I can not recommend it with a clear conscience.)

Third Trimester Abortions:

Prostaglandin: Used late-term - Prostaglandin is injected into the amniotic sac causing premature labor and delivery of a dead baby. Use of this has dropped significantly because of the risks to the mother. (Emotional trauma is a big risk for this one! I would beg anyone considering an abortion to never pick this option. If you're far enough along, you will feel the baby move and jerk around as he or she dies. Having personally known women who bear emotional scars from this type of procedure, I can not recommend it with a clear conscience.)

Inter-cardiac injections: Poison is injected into the chest or heart of the fetus via a long needle inserted through the mother’s abdomen. The dead baby is usually absorbed. Sometimes this results in the loss of all the babies when using this method for "pregnancy reduction" with multi-fetal pregnancies. This is the procedure that the mother of the septuplets refused to have done.

Partial-Birth Abortion (D&X): Partial-Birth Abortions are used from the 4th month through the end of the 9th month of pregnancy. Once you get to this phase of pregnancy, the child is viable and this procedure is wholly unnecessary. 

For this abortion, the abortionist uses ultrasound to locate the unborn baby's legs. Forceps are then used to pull the baby's legs through the birth canal, delivering the baby feet first, being careful to leave the head inside. A scissors-like instrument is then used to puncture the base of the back of the head. A suction device is then inserted to suction out the baby's brain so the skull will easily collapse. The dead baby is then removed. If the baby manages to slip out alive then he or she is legally protected and the doctor is not allowed to continue with the skull puncture/brain suction move.

Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, along with hundreds of physicians and the Physicians' Ad Hoc Coalition for Truth (PHACT) said that this "procedure" is never necessary to save the life of the mother. (emphasis mine)

Dr. Nancy Romer, FACOG, Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Miami Valley Hospital in Ohio said, "People deserve to know that the partial-birth abortion is never medically indicated either to save the health of a woman or preserve her future fertility."

Dr. Martin Haskell, an abortionist who specializes in these late-term abortions, has admitted to performing over 1,000 of these abortions. He stated in a recorded interview with the American Medical News (the official newspaper of the AMA) that: "In my particular case, probably 20% (of these procedures) are for genetic reasons. And the other 80% are purely elective." That means in 80% (that's over 800 babies) there was no health risk for the mother and the baby had no handicaps.

It has been documented that thousands of these abortions are performed each year. A New Jersey newspaper reporter with the Bergen County Record discovered and reported that 1,500 babies are killed each year by partial-birth abortion at one New Jersey "Hospital" alone.

Read more: Abortion FAQS