Sunday, March 1, 2009

Risks and Complications of Abortion

Risks and Complications of AbortionBefore abortion was legalised in 1967, women had to go to the backstreets for abortions. They faced serious risk to their lives and health from dangerous potions and instruments. Following the 1967 Abortion Act, abortion became a safe surgical operation with a low incidence of complications. But it must still be seen in the context of all operations - any medical operation carries some element of risk.The majority of abortions are done early; 88% were done under 12 weeks in 1995.

Early abortions (up to 12/14 weeks by vacuum aspiration or medical abortion using mifepristone) are safe, simple and quick and have a low complication rate.The risk associated with abortion depends on many factors: how many weeks pregnant the woman is, her age, the type of operation, whether, and how often, she has been pregnant before and her general health. Another important factor is the skill of the doctor performing the operation.

If abortions are performed by experienced staff committed to providing a comprehensive abortion service, the likelihood of complications is much reduced.The most usual complication is infection. Other, less common, problems include retained fetal tissue and perforation of the womb (uterus). On average, women have a 1 in 50 chance of a minor infection and a 1 in 200 chance of a more major infection.
Two to three per cent of women have a problem that results in readmission to the hospital or clinic. In the majority of cases, abortions after 14 weeks in the NHS and after about 18 weeks in non-NHS clinics are carried out by bringing on (inducing) labour. Later abortions have a higher complication rate. Between 13 and 18 weeks the risks are double those of early abortion and those done after 18 weeks carry three times the risk.
The incidence of problems has been greatly reduced in recent years by the use of prostaglandins. These are hormones which cause the uterus to contract and open the cervix. In young women, 15-16 year olds, a prostaglandin abortion can be less risky to the cervix than a surgical abortion (called a D&E) because the cervix is much more difficult to dilate surgically. The main risks of later abortions are bleeding, injury to the uterus and infection.
The rate of deaths from early abortions is about 1 in 100,000 in this country. Comparing this to the maternal death rate, abortion is eight to ten times safer than childbirth.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this important information. This is very useful to every woman to know about pregnancy. Keep up the good work and keep on posting.

    Kendra
    www.imarksweb.org

    ReplyDelete
  2. Many women facing an unintended pregnancy will choose abortion against their own feelings that it is wrong.There are
    abortion alternatives

    ReplyDelete