Abortion 101
What is an abortion?
Abortion is the medical term for the termination of a pregnancy. Often times we think of abortion as intentional, but miscarriages are also referred to as “spontaneous” abortions.
Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures you can have. It’s safer than colonoscopies, tonsillectomies, plastic surgery, and is about 14x safer than childbirth.
Broadly speaking, abortion can fall into two categories: medication or procedural.
Medication abortion is most typically used for pregnancies below 10-11 weeks. A combo of pills are used to induce abortion. The first pill, Mifepristone (200mg), relaxes the cervix and stops pregnancy growth. The second set of 4 pills, Misoprostol (800mg), is taken 24-48 hours later. Misoprostol further relaxes the cervix and causes cramping and bleeding, which flushes the uterus of any pregnancy tissue.
Medication abortion is the most common type of abortion. Medication abortions have been proven time and time again to be safer than many common medications like Tylenol and Viagra.
Procedural abortion is further broken down into two categories: Aspiration or Dilation & Evacuation (D&E).
Aspiration abortion is performed between 6-15 weeks and uses gentle suction to empty the uterus of any pregnancy tissue. Depending on how far along a person is, personal preference, and cost, general anesthesia may be used. Aspiration abortions typically take about 5-15 minutes.
D&E abortion is very similar to Aspiration abortion, but is typically preformed on patients 14 weeks or later. Depending on how much farther along a person is in their pregnancy, this may require a multiple days to soften and open the cervix. This may be done with dilators, which are placed in the cervix and gradually swell in size, or with medication. Once the cervix is dilated enough, patients will be put on general sedation and a combination of gentle suction and medical tools will be used to empty the uterus of all pregnancy tissue. Most D&E abortions can take between 10-20 minutes.
D&E is used for all in-clinic abortions after 20 weeks, and may take longer than D&E’s preformed between weeks 14-19.
(This link above contains images of pregnancy tissue from week 4 - 9. They are neither bloody or graphic, but click the link at your own discretion.)
After an abortion…
After an abortion, you can expect some cramping and bleeding.
They usually prescribe pain meds like Ibuprofen to help with the pain.
It's possible to still test positive for pregnancy for a few weeks after a successful abortion.
And make sure you don't put anything in your vagina for at least 5 days after the procedure.
Listen to your abortion provider for the exact recovery time.
You might still experience some pregnancy symptoms too.
If you feel you have any medical concerns please:
Call or Text the Miscarriage & Abortion Hotline at 1-833-246-2632.
Here’s the good news— abortion is super safe!
There's no evidence that it messes with your fertility. So if you don't want to get pregnant again, you should use reliable birth control once you start having sex.
Oh, and just so you know, there's NO limit to how many abortions someone can have in their lifetime.