by Heather Bolin

Created on: September 17, 2009   Last Updated: September 18, 2009

Abortion. The termination of a pregnancy by the expulsion of a fetus from a womens uterus. It's a controversial issue in societies everywhere, whether it's induced abortion or spontaneous. However, the little known facts of the act are not often enough clarified and so the question "Am I doing the right thing?" is not always thought through.

There are two categories of legal abortion: medical and surgical. Medical is the most common and can only be done in the first trimester by the use of prescription drugs. It covers about 10% of pregnancy terminations in the United States and Europe. When combined the medication has a 92% effective rate but in event of failures the fetus must be vacuum extracted. The other is surgical, vacuum method that is used most commonly and easily in the first twelve weeks. There are several different surgical methods that are allowed through various stages of pregnancy.

Fetal development plays a big role on how abortion works but it is little known by women that a fetus is a living thing. The spinal cord can be seen as early as 14 days. At 18 days, the baby heart develops and by the 21st it is beating. The eyes, ears and nose form 4 weeks after fertilization. Brain waves can be measured on an EEG test at 40 days. That's as soon as six weeks after conception. All body systems are present by eight weeks. How by any standard could this not be considered a living being?

Even if a woman continues with her decision to abort her pregnancy it can still have physical repercussions. The most common problems are bladder injury, bowel injury, breast cancer, ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy outside the uterus), hemorrhaging, hepatitis, infection, future miscarriages, laceration of the cervix, and post abortion syndrome. This does not happen to every woman but is known to happen to a large percentage.

There are forty six million babies killed each year. Knowing how a fetus forms and how quickly it becomes a human being how can such small things differentiate murder from an everyday legal occurence? With other options such as adoptions, is abortion the right thing? It has negative effects from all angles and is made to look like the easy way out. And still, should it be legal for a doctor to perform an abortion without informing both parents about all relevant information?

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