Learn The Facts
You deserve to be informed about it all when it comes to your abortion pregnancy option. It’s important for your overall health to be well-educated on all options as well as all procedures.
There are two types of abortion procedures:
- Medical
- Surgical
Be better informed to make a confident decision with information about how each procedure works, and the risks. If considering an abortion, it’s important for your health and safety to always speak to a trusted medical professional or pregnancy center to understand the impact abortion may have on you.
1. Medical Abortion
Medical abortion ends a pregnancy through a medication regimen using mifepristone and misoprostol. These two drugs combined are also known as the abortion pill.
First, mifepristone blocks progesterone, an essential hormone in pregnancy. Mifepristone causes the uterine walls to thin, causing the attached embryo to become detached.
Next, misoprostol causes contractions to remove the detached embryo and pregnancy tissue from the body through the vagina. Potential risks that should be discussed include:
- Incomplete abortion, where some of the growing fetal tissue remains in the uterus
- An ongoing pregnancy if the procedure doesn’t work
- Heavy and prolonged bleeding
- Infection, to include fever
- Digestive system discomfort
The Mayo Clinic also shares that individuals with specific health conditions, pregnancy complications, or pregnancies past a specific gestational age will not qualify for this type of abortion.
*At VCPC, we are not an abortion provider, but we will provide you with the information you need to make a fully informed choice.
2. Surgical Abortion
Surgical abortion is when a woman undergoes a surgical operation to terminate a pregnancy. Two common types of surgical abortion include:
- Dilation and Curettage (D&C): Small instruments or medication are used to dilate the cervix. Next, a surgical instrument called a curette, which can be a sharp instrument or suction device, is used to remove the pregnancy tissue and endometrium, terminating the pregnancy.
- Dilation and Evacuation (D&E): Usually includes a combination of vacuum aspiration, dilation and curettage, and the use of surgical instruments (such as forceps) to remove the fetal and endometrial tissue, ending the pregnancy.
Potential risks of these surgical abortion procedures include:
- Uterine perforation
- Cervical injury
- Infection/fever
- Excessive bleeding
Surgical abortion procedures are quite invasive and are recommended to be thoroughly discussed and contemplated. Our compassionate team at Ventura County Pregnancy Center is here to help answer more of your questions when it comes to this option.
Gain the knowledge you need to make an informed decision before having an abortion. Because we are pro-woman and a non-profit, we do not provide or refer for abortion services. We provide all of our services at no cost.
*At VCPC, we are not an abortion provider, but we will provide you with the information you need to make a fully informed choice.