Since care for abortion and pregnancy loss is the same, restrictions on one have had disastrous impacts on the other. Horrifying stories from the states that have banned abortion demonstrate the medical crisis that now grips nearly half the country. A woman in Wisconsin experiencing a miscarriage was turned away from the hospital and sent home to bleed without medical supervision….Continue reading….
Source: VOX
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Critics:
The health risks of abortion depend principally on how, and under what conditions, the procedure is performed. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines unsafe abortions as those performed by unskilled individuals, with hazardous equipment, or in unsanitary facilities. Legal abortions performed in the developed world are among the safest procedures in medicine.
According to a 2012 study in Obstetrics & Gynecology, in the United States the risk of maternal mortality is 14 times lower after induced abortion than after childbirth.[95] The CDC estimated in 2019 that US preg while the US abortion mortality rate was 0.43 maternal deaths per 100,000 procedures. In the UK, guidelines of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists state that “Women should be advised that abortion is generally safer than continuing a pregnancy to term.”
Worldwide, on average, abortion is safer than carrying a pregnancy to term. A 2007 study reported that “26% of all pregnancies worldwide are terminated by induced abortion,” whereas “deaths from improperly performed [abortion] procedures constitute 13% of maternal mortality globally.”In Indonesia in 2000 it was estimated that 2 million pregnancies ended in abortion, 4.5 million pregnancies were carried to term, and 14–16 percent of maternal deaths resulted from abortion.
In the US from 2000 to 2009, abortion had a mortality rate lower than plastic surgery, lower or similar to running a marathon, and about equivalent to traveling 760 miles (1,220 km) in a passenger car. Five years after seeking abortion services, women who gave birth after being denied an abortion reported worse health than women who had either first or second trimester abortions. The risk of abortion-related mortality increases with gestational age, but remains lower than that of childbirth. Outpatient abortion is as safe from 64 to 70 days’ gestation as it before 63 days.
There is little difference in terms of safety and efficacy between medical abortion using a combined regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol and surgical abortion (vacuum aspiration) in early first trimester abortions up to 10 weeks gestation. Medical abortion using the prostaglandin analog misoprostol alone is less effective and more painful than medical abortion using a combined regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol or surgical abortion.
Vacuum aspiration in the first trimester is the safest method of surgical abortion, and can be performed in a primary care office, abortion clinic, or hospital. Complications, which are rare, can include uterine perforation, pelvic infection, and retained products of conception requiring a second procedure to evacuate. Infections account for one-third of abortion-related deaths in the United States.
The rate of complications of vacuum aspiration abortion in the first trimester is similar regardless of whether the procedure is performed in a hospital, surgical center, or office. Preventive antibiotics (such as doxycycline or metronidazole) are typically given before abortion procedures, as they are believed to substantially reduce the risk of postoperative uterine infection; however, antibiotics are not routinely given with abortion pills.
The rate of failed procedures does not appear to vary significantly depending on whether the abortion is performed by a doctor or a mid-level practitioner. Complications after second trimester abortion are similar to those after first trimester abortion, and depend somewhat on the method chosen.
The risk of death from abortion approaches roughly half the risk of death from childbirth the farther along a woman is in pregnancy; from one in a million before 9 weeks gestation to nearly one in ten thousand at 21 weeks or more (as measured from the last menstrual period). It appears that having had a prior surgical uterine evacuation (whether because of induced abortion or treatment of miscarriage) correlates with a small increase in the risk of preterm birth in future pregnancies.
The studies supporting this did not control for factors not related to abortion or miscarriage, and hence the causes of this correlation have not been determined, although multiple possibilities have been suggested. Current evidence finds no relationship between most induced abortions and mental health problems other than those expected for any unwanted pregnancy.
A report by the American Psychological Association concluded that a woman’s first abortion is not a threat to mental health when carried out in the first trimester, with such women no more likely to have mental-health problems than those carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term; the mental-health outcome of a woman’s second or greater abortion is less certain.
Some older reviews concluded that abortion was associated with an increased risk of psychological problems; however, later reviews of the medical literature found that previous reviews did not use an appropriate control group. When a control group is utilized, receiving abortion is not associated with adverse psychological outcomes. However, women seeking abortion who are denied access to abortion have an increase in anxiety after the denial.
Although some studies show negative mental-health outcomes in women who choose abortions after the first trimester because of fetal abnormalities,more rigorous research would be needed to show this conclusively. Some proposed negative psychological effects of abortion have been referred to by anti-abortion advocates as a separate condition called “post-abortion syndrome”, but this is not recognized by medical or psychological professionals in the United States.
A 2020 long term-study among US women found that about 99% of women felt that they made the right decision five years after they had an abortion. Relief was the primary emotion with few women feeling sadness or guilt. Social stigma was a main factor predicting negative emotions and regret years later. The researchers also stated: “These results add to the scientific evidence that emotions about an abortion are associated with personal and social context, and are not a product of the abortion procedure itself.
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