`Medical Issues Regarding Therapeutic Abortion`

What are the options for treatment?

Traditionally, surgery is usual course of action. In recent years, various drugs have been developed to make the cost more effective and the experience less traumatic.

Surgery and chemical treatment

The type of treatment depends upon the stage of pregnancy. In the first fifteen weeks, the abortion is usually carried out through suction, either by a syringe (MVA) or by an electric pump (EVA). Both devices simply physically remove the embryo or fetus from the woman. Dilation and curettage, in which the doctor cleans out the lining of the uterus (thus, removing the embryo or fetus), was once a common technique, but the World Heatlh Organization only recommends this procedure when the other options are unavailable. A doctor may instead prescribe to the woman the drug mifepristone within the first seven weeks of pregnancy to terminate the pregnancy without surgery.

As the fetus grows, the abortion becomes more complicated. Between fifteen and twenty-six weeks, doctors may perform a dilation and evacuation, in which the cervix is dilated so that the doctor can insert forceps into the uterus and remove the fetus part by part, in some cases crushing the head to remove it. Again, suction is used to remove any remaining parts. Late in the pregnancy, the fetus may be removed whole, and this is what is known as a partial-birth abortion.

The chart above details which method of abortion is used at which stage in the pregnancy. It also includes hysterotomy abortion, a less common kind of surgery, and induced miscarriage (when the woman or somebody else intentionally causes trauma to the fetus to stop the pregnancy).

When and how does selective reduction occur?

A woman typically undergoes selective reduction between the ninth and twelfth week of pregnancy. Due to the presence of the fetus or fetuses the woman intends to keep, traditional surgical or chemical options are unavailable, so a doctor will inject a chemical agent into the targeted (for reduction) fetus or fetuses, which break up, and the physical matter of which becomes part of the woman's body again.

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