Is ectopic pregnancy an abortion?
Definition of abortion In medicine, an abortion the term used for the premature exit of the products of conception (the foetus, foetal membranes, and placenta) from the uterus. It is the loss of a pregnancy and does not refer to why that pregnancy was lost. A spontaneous abortion is a medical term used to describe a miscarriage. The miscarriage of 3 or more consecutive pregnancies is termed in medicine as habitual abortion. Ectopic pregnancy is not and never could be regarded as an abortion in the more widely understood meaning of the word. Ectopic pregnancy is a life-threatening condition, where the egg has implanted outside of the uterus. If left unmanaged, it can cause a rupture or breach of the wall of the structure it has attached itself to, with the consequence of life threatening internal bleeding, possibly resulting in the death of the mother. In the UK it is still the most common cause of maternal death. The Catholic church does not accept all methods of managing an ectopic pr
