Counseling-The best advice to any woman considering abortion is
to look at all your options. Those who consider abortion a safe
simple solution to an untimely pregnancy too often find themselves
living with consequences they had not anticipated.
Complications of Abortion Include the Physical and Psychological Complications Listed Below as
Well as Effects on Relationships.
In order to make an informed decision, a woman considering
abortion may examine possible complications to herself, her unborn child, her ability to have
future children.
Options such as adoption or living at a maternity home may also be explored. If the young woman is
still in school or too young to raise her child, she may wish to consider adoption.
She may want to consider living at a maternity home is she has no place to stay or feels she is being pressured to abort her child.
Women should also consider the possible complications of abortion. Listed below are several complications
of abortion. Please click on the underlined
words for an explaination of each complication.
Bladder Injury
If your uterus is perforated, your urinary bladder can be perforated too.
This also can cause peritonitis (an inflamed, infected lining of the abdomen),
with all its pain, dangers and necessary reparative surgery.
Bowel Injury
If your uterus is perforated, your intestines can be perforated too. This
will cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever, blood in stool, peritonitis
(an inflamed, infected lining of the abdomen) and death if not treated
quickly enough. A portion of the intestine may have to be taken out, and
a temporary or permanent colostomy may be put in your abdomen.
Ectopic Tubal Pregnancy
An ectopic pregnancy is any pregnancy that occurs outside the uterus. After an
abortion women are 8 to 20 times more likely to have an ectopic pregnancy.
If not discovered soon enough, an ectopic pregnancy ruptures, and she can bleed
to death without emergency surgery. Statistics show a 30% increased
risk of ectopic pregnancy after one abortion and a 160% increased risk after
two or more abortions. There has been a threefold increase in ectopic pregnancies
in the U.S. since abortion was legalized. In 1970 the incidence was 4.8 per 1,000
live births. By 1980 it was 14.5 per 1,000 births.
Hemorrhage
One to fourteen percent of women requires a blood transfusion due to bleeding from an abortion.
Severe Bleeding
You may develop DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulopathy) from your abortion.
This means your blood does not clot and you will bleed uncontrollably. DIC is
extremely life threatening and difficult to treat. It occurs in 2 out of 1,000 second
trimester abortions and in 6.6 out of 1,000 (nearly 1-in-150) saline installation
abortions.
Infection
Mild fever and sometimes death occurs when there is an infection from an abortion.
This happens in anywhere from 1-in-4 women and 1-in-50 women.
Incomplete Abortion
Failure to successfully abort the unborn younger than 6 weeks is relatively common.
Sometimes, an abortionist fails to evacuate the placenta from the uterus. This means
the pregnancy continues even though mother has endured the dangers and cost of an
abortion.
Sterility
After an abortion you may become sterile. This happens in 1-out-of-20 to 1-out-of-50
women. The risk of secondary infertility among women with at least one induced abortion
is 3-4 times greater than that among women who have not aborted.
Hepatitis
This can occur in women who need a blood transfusion after their abortion.
Perforation of the Uterus
Between 1-out-of-40 and 1-out-of-400 women who abort suffer a perforated uterus. This
almost always causes peritonitis (an inflamed, infected lining of the abdomen), similar
to having a ruptured appendix.
Miscarriage of Future Pregnancies
Women who have had two or more abortions have twice as many first trimester miscarriages
in later pregnancies. There is a ten-fold increase in the number of second trimester
miscarriages in pregnancies that follow a vaginal abortion.
Deleterious Effects on Future Pregnancies
If you have an abortion:
- You will be more likely to bleed in the first three months of future pregnancies.
- You will be less likely to have a normal delivery in future pregnancies.
- You will need more manual removal of placenta more often and there will be more complications with expelling the baby and its placenta.
- Your next baby will be twice as likely to die in the first few months of life.
- Your next baby will be three to four times as likely to die in the last months of his first year of life.
- Your next baby may have a low birth weight.
- Your next baby is more likely to be born prematurely with all the dangerous and costly problems that entail.
Psychological Consequences Including Suicide
