First-Trimester Abortions
Suction Aspiration/Vacuum Curettage
The abortionist forcibly dilates the woman’s cervix. He then inserts into her uterus a suction tube with a sharp cutting edge. With that tube, which has suction 29 times more powerful than the normal household vacuum sweeper, he tears the developing baby and the placenta from the wall of the uterus and sucks them into a bottle.
RU 486
RU 486 requires several visits to the abortion facility. In her first visit, the woman is given the RU 486 pills, which block the action of progesterone, the natural hormone vital to maintaining the rich nutrient lining of the uterus. The developing baby starves as the nutrient lining disintegrates. At a second visit 36 to 49 hours later, the woman is given artificial prostaglandins, usually, misoprostol, which starts uterine contractions to expel the embryonic baby. A third visit about 2 weeks later determines if the abortion is complete. If not, the woman must return for a surgical abortion.
RU 486 was to be used only between 5 and 7 weeks after the client’s last menstrual period (LMP).
Dilatation and Curettage (D & C)
The abortionist forcibly dilates the woman’s cervix. He inserts into the mother’s uterus a loop-shaped steel knife which he uses to cut up the baby and scrape the placenta from the wall of the womb. He then empties the uterus of the baby’s body parts and the placenta.
Methotrexate
Like the RU 486, this abortion requires several office visits. In the first visit, the abortionist gives the woman an intra-muscular injection of methotrexate, a powerful anti-cancer drug. Methotrexate attacks the fast-growing cells of the trophoblast, the tissue which surrounds the tiny child and eventually produces his placenta. As the trophoblast breaks down, the baby dies, as she is no longer able to get needed food, fluids, and oxygen.
Three to seven days later, the abortionist gives the woman a vaginal suppository that triggers labor and the dead child is expelled from her uterus. Normally, the baby is delivered with the next few hours, but sometimes a second dose of the prosta-glandin is required. If the woman is still pregnant in later visits, she must undergo a surgical abortion.
Instillation Methods
Some of the fluid in the amniotic sac is withdrawn and replaced with a substance to kill the baby.
If saline is injected, it poisons the baby and painfully burns his skin.
If urea or prostaglandin is injected, it will set off violent uterine contractions (intense labor), which prematurely expels the baby. (These two substances are generally less effective than the saline.)
NOTE: Sometimes chemicals such as potassium chloride or digoxin are injected directly into the baby’s heart to cause death from cardiac arrest prior to labor and expulsion.
Late-Term Surgical Abortions (after 16 weeks)
Dilatation and Evacuation (D&E)
After the abortionist dilates the cervix, he inserts into the woman’s uterus forceps with sharp metal jaws. Using the forceps, he grasps one of the baby’s limbs, twists and tears it away from the body, and pulls it out of the uterus. He continues this process until the child’s entire body is removed. (Because the baby’s skull has often hardened by this time, the abortionist must compress or crush it before he can remove it.)
Hysterotomy
As if he were performing a Caesarean section delivery, the abortionist makes an incision in the woman’s abdomen and uterus, removing the living child. The abortionist then drops the baby into a bucket of water or leaves him to die from neglect. (This procedure is generally used when one of the chemical abortions has failed.)
Dilatation and Extraction (D&X) or Partial Birth Abortion
Guided by ultrasound, the abortion-ist uses forceps to turn the baby into a breech position. He then delivers the entire body of the living child – except for the head, which he deliberately holds in the birth canal. The abortionist then kills the infant by puncturing the base of the baby’s skull with a sharp instrument, usually surgical scissors.
The abortionist then spreads the scissors to enlarge the wound, inserts a vacuum tube into the opening and suctions out the baby’s brain. Having collapsed the baby’s skull, the abor-tionist completes the procedure by delivering the rest of the baby.
