Listed below are the many ways in which the medical field ends a pregnancy with induced abortion. Some techniques are used presently hundreds of thousands of times a day. Some of the ways have not been used that often in recent years, but they do still happen.
Suction Aspiration (approximately 5-13 weeks of pregnancy): The abortionist dialates the cervix. A catheter tube is inserted through the vagina and up into the uterus. The tube is connected to a vacuum-like machine. The machine is turned on, and this powerful suction tears the fetal body into pieces and sucks it down through the tube and out into a bottle. The tube jerks frequently as fetal parts become clogged in it. The bottle is then emptied to make sure all the body parts are out. This is probably the most common method used today for first trimester abortions.
Dialation and Cutterage (D&C) (During first 10 weeks of pregnancy): The abortionist inserts a loop-shaped knife up into the uterus. He slices the fetus and placenta into pieces and scrapes the inside of the uterus clean. Bleeding is profuse. This method of abortion is rarely used anymore today.
Dialation and Evacuation (D&E) (13-24 weeks of pregnancy): The mother's cervix is dialated. A pliers-like instrument is inserted through the vagina and up into the uterus, and the abortionist grabs the leg or arm of the fetus. Each leg and arm is torn off using the pliers, and the entire body is dismembered. The head and spine of the unborn child must be crushed. Today, D&E is one of the most commonly practiced second trimester abortion procedures.
Dialation and Extraction (also can be called D&X, Intact D&E, or Partial Birth Abortion) (approximately 20-40 weeks of pregnancy): The cervix is dialated. The abortionist pulls the fetus out of the mother by the feet, and continues until there is only a few inches of its head still inside the mother's vagina. The fetus is left hanging by its head with her arms and legs hanging outside. Scissors are jammed into the back of the child's head, and then spread to open up the wound. A tube is inserted into the wound, and the brain is sucked out. This causes the skull to collapse. The now-dead baby is then removed. Besides D&E, this is the most common late-term abortion procedure used today.
Hysterotomy (20-40 weeks of pregnancy): This is like a C-section. The mother's abdomen and womb are surgically cut open, and the baby is lifted out. Unfortunately, these babies are very much alive when taken out. To kill them, some abortionists have been known to drown or beat them to death with tongs. Some even break the child's neck or put the babies into a stainless-steel dish, letting them die from lack of care. There have been numerous cases in which the abortionists smother the babies with the placenta or choke them with the umbilical cord. Fortunately, this method is rarely used anymore.
Saline abortion (approximately 16-30 weeks of pregnancy): The abortionist injects a salt solution through the mother's abdomen and into the amniotic fluid. The unborn child breathes this solution in and swallows it. She convulses and struggles, and it takes over an hour for her to die. What the solution does is burn off the child's skin. About two days later, the mother's body delivers the dead baby, whom, in some cases, is born alive, gasping for air (for the solution also burns the lungs). This method was invented by the Nazis in the concentration camps during World War II. Should that alone tell us something?
Prostaglandin abortion (any time during pregnancy): A hormone is injected into the mother to produce a violent labor and delivery. Most of the time the child does not survive the labor, because the contractions are much more powerful than normal, natural contractions. These contractions are so strong that they can crush or decapitate the child in the womb. If the baby does survive the labor, he is born alive but is then left to die from neglect.
RU486 (a pill in the very early weeks of pregnancy): This is a drug that induces a miscarriage. What it does is block the hormone which produces nutrients that are supposed to nurture the tiny embryo through the placenta. The embryo is starved to death, and drops off. Since this procedure is done at home, the woman will soon find herself holding her tiny child in either her bloody fingers or her toilet bowl.
Digoxin (approximately 20-30 weeks of pregnancy): Digoxin is injected directly into the unborn child's heart, killing him. It is followed by a prostaglandin to rid the mother's body of the dead fetus.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, MMWR, 05/95, p. 29, Table 3.
