What is an abortion?

What is a medication abortion?

If a person opts for a medication abortion, they use mifepristone and misoprostol to end their pregnancy.

Moreover, 14 other states have laws requiring that the clinician providing the medication be physically present.

Check your local laws or call a clinic in your area if you are considering a medication abortion.)

Emergency contraceptionalso known as the morning-after pillisnot the same as a medication abortion.

Emergency contraception prevents pregnancy while medication abortions end pregnancy.

What is a surgical abortion?

Surgical or in-clinic abortionstake place in a clinic setting.

The medical procedure uses suction to empty the uterus.

The procedure uses local anesthesia and a person who undergoes it is given oral pain relief.

If you are less than 12 weeks pregnant, you could expect this to take around three hours.

What is dilation and curettage (D&C)?

This is a standard part of surgical abortions and post-miscarriage care.

What is a late-term abortion?

Typically, people seek these abortions for distinct reasons.

It may be that there are fetal anomalies or the life of the pregnant person is at stake.

Read the personal story of one woman who made this decisionhere.

What is a partial-birth abortion?

You might hear the term partial-birth abortion crop up from time to time.

This is not a widespread phenomenon, despite what you may have heard in promotional messaging.

What is Roe v. Wade?

It essentially legalized abortion across the country.

Prior to Roe, some states did have legal and accessible abortion options, but many states did not.

What is Planned Parenthood v. Casey?

As mentioned, states have been allowed to implement their own laws about abortion.

In the Casey ruling, the court maintained that those restrictions couldnt be too onerous.

What do the terms pro-choice, anti-choice, and pro-life mean?

When discussing abortion, youll hear people referred to as pro-choice or anti-choice.

These are all loaded terms, which is why theyre often used as self-identifiers or as insults.

In short, someone who considers themselves pro-life argues in favor of the right to life of a fetus.

Someone who considers themselves pro-choice argues in favor of a persons right to choose.