An abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. It uses medicine or surgery to remove the embryo or fetus and placenta from the uterus. The procedure is done by a licensed physician or someone acting under the supervision of a licensed physician.
The decision to end a pregnancy is very personal. If you are thinking of having an abortion, most healthcare providers advise counseling.
- Abortion in the U.S.: Utilization, Financing, and Access(Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation) - Links to PDF - http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/upload/3269-02.pdf
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Ending Your Pregnancy(American Academy of Family Physicians) - http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/articles/846.printerview.html
Also available in Spanish http://familydoctor.org/online/famdoces/home/articles/846.printerview.html
- Induced Abortion(American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) - http://www.acog.org/publications/patient_education/bp043.cfm
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ACOG Urges Wider Availability of Misoprostol Internationally to Reduce Maternal Mortality(01/26/2009, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) - http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr01-26-09.cfm
- Effectiveness of Peer-Led Sex Education Questioned(12/16/2008, Reuters Health) - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_72832.html
- Manual Vacuum Aspiration(Reproductive Health Technologies Project) - http://www.rhtp.org/abortion/mva/
- Abortions: Does It Affect Subsequent Pregnancies?(Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) - http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/abortion/AN00633/METHOD=print
- Can Having an Abortion Cause or Contribute to Breast Cancer?(American Cancer Society) - http://www.cancer.org/docroot/cri/content/cri_2_6x_can_having_an_abortion_cause_or_contribute_to_breast_cancer.asp?sitearea=cri
- Mifepristone (RU 486) Information(Center for Drug Evaluation and Research) - http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/mifepristone/
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ClinicalTrials.gov: Abortion, Therapeutic
(National Institutes of Health) - http://clinicaltrials.gov/search/open/intervention=%22Abortion,+Therapeutic%22
References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
- Article: Obama overturns ban on federal funding of family planning organisations... - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=19174431&tool=MedlinePlus
- Article: Early termination of pregnancy. - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=19172773&tool=MedlinePlus
- Article: When politics trumps evidence: legislative or regulatory exclusion of abortion... - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=19114233&tool=MedlinePlus
- Abortion -- see more articles - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=search&db=pubmed&term=abortion,induced[majr]+AND+humans[mh]+AND+english[la]+NOT+(editorial[pt]+OR+case+reports[pt]+OR+letter[pt])&doptcmdl=summary&cmd_current=Limits&pmfilter_EDatLimit=last+1+Year&tool=MedlinePlus
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists - http://www.acog.org/
- Abortion Surveillance - United States, 2004(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) - Large PDF file - http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/ss/ss5609.pdf
- Estimated Pregnancy Rates by Outcome for the United States, 1990-2004(National Center for Health Statistics) - Links to PDF - Large PDF file - http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_15.pdf
- Female Reproductive System - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/femalereproductivesystem.html
- Pregnancy and Reproduction - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/pregnancyandreproduction.html