Abortions Case Study

A Little over two million unintended pregnancies occur each year, half end in an abortion. About two out of every 100 women have an abortion. A person may look at those statistics as not be significant. The way a person looks at it depends on which view he/she takes in the controversial topic of abortions. The typical person may only know all the controversy that goes behind abortions, but not all the facts and truth about abortions. In order to fully know about abortions a person must be informed on what an abortion is, where abortions are performed, the different procedures of an abortion, statistics, the controversy behind abortions, being pro-life or pro-choice, and the physical and emotional effects an abortion may cause on the mother.

The word abortion comes from the Latin abortion, which means to abort, miscarry, or deliver prematurely. In medicine abortion means ending a pregnancy prematurely. An abortion can happen spontaneously as a result of complications or it can be induced. An induced abortion carried out in order to save the health f the mother is a therapeutic abortion and is most commonly looked upon as a miscarriage. An abortion carried out for any other reason is an elective abortion. The majority of elective abortions are carried out during the first three months of pregnancy.

In America more than 90 percent of all abortions are performed in the first trimester of pregnancy. Most take place in outpatient clinics that are specially made for the purpose of having an abortion. Most all abortion in the United States are performed by physicians. Very few physicians in specialized clinics perform abortions during the second trimester of pregnancy. Although hospitals permit abortions to be performed, the number is limited because the costs to perform an abortion in hospitals are much higher. Many staff members at hospitals won't and/or refuse to partake in doing abortions; whereas, at specialized clinics staff is hired for that specific reason. Specialized clinics have many different procedures in aborting the baby.

Depending on how far along the mother is in pregnancy determines what procedure is used to abort the baby. Most early abortions are performed with some use of vacuum aspiration equipment. During this type of procedure a machine is used to create a vacuum and suction the contents of the uterus into an outside container. After twelve weeks of pregnancy an abortion becomes more dangerous and different ways have to be looked at to abort the baby. A method that is used to abort the baby after the first trimester is called salt poisoning. The abortionist injects a strong salt solution directly into the amniotic sac (fluid surrounding the baby). The baby breathes and swallows it, and is then poisoned by the salt. It takes over an hour for the baby to be fully effected by the solution. The mother delivers the dead baby in a day or two days. In rare cases the baby ends up being alive. Another form of an abortion that is used is called a hysterotomy. This method is usually used late in pregnancy. The mother's abdomen and uterus are surgically opened and the baby is lifted out. Unfortunately, many of these babies are very much alive when removed. To kill the babies, some abortionists have been known to plunge them into buckets of water or smother them with the placentas. These are just some of the many ways that are used to perform an abortion.

Many polls that have been taken and research that has been done has helped to determine who is most likely to have an abortion and under what circumstances. There are a total of 42 million abortions worldwide every year. This means that 115,000 abortions occur each day. Just in America alone 1.37 million abortions happen per year. 52 percent of women who have abortions in American are younger than 25. 64.4 percent of all abortions are performed on never-married woman. Women with family income between $30,000 and $59,999 are most likely to have abortions. 93 percent of abortions occur because of social issues and 6 percent occur because of potential health problems. One percent of all abortions occur because of rape/incest. This statistic seemed to be a surprise to many because for such