What are the procedures used to terminate pregnancy, and in what instances are they used?
The procedure used to terminate a pregnancy depends on the stage of pregnancy and the preferences of the mother and her doctor. In the first trimester (through the first 12 weeks of gestation or development of the fetus), those choices include: • Medical abortion, in which the mother is given medications called mifepristone, which thins the lining of the uterus, and misoprostol, which causes the uterus to empty itself of tissue. Medical abortion can only be employed up to the 49th day, or 7th week, of pregnancy. • Surgical abortion, in which the patient’s cervix (the opening to the uterus) is dilated, or widened, making it possible to insert instruments to clear the uterus of its contents. Early in the pregnancy, this clearing is accomplished either via suction or by curettage (i.e. scraping with an instrument called a curette). These procedures can be used up to the 20th week. (Some states allow them up to the 24th week.) Later in the second trimester, another procedure, dilation and
