Suction Aspiration

For this procedure you lie on your back with your feet in stirrups, and the doctor applies a shot of anesthetic to your cervix to reduce pain. Your cervical muscle is stretched with cone-shaped rods until the opening is wide enough to allow the abortion tool to pass into your uterus. Then the doctor guides the suction device through the cervix and into your uterus.

When the suction machine is turned on you feel the strong force of the vacuum which is used to pull the placenta and fetus into parts small enough to pass out of your body through the suction tube. During the surgery the doctor cannot see the inside of your uterus and operates by touch alone, trying to detach the fetus from the wall of the uterus with the powerful suction tip.

Dilatation and Curettage

The doctor opens your cervix, as described above, but in this case the abortion is done with a loop-shaped knife which he uses to scrape the wall of your uterus, cutting the fetus and placenta into smaller parts and pulling them out of your body through the cervix.

Dilatation and Evacuation

Because the bones of the fetus are larger and stronger by this time, the doctor uses a medical instrument resembling pliers to pull the fetus into smaller parts and removes those parts from your body through the cervix. This procedure requires that your cervix be opened wider than with "Suction" or "D and C" methods, and there is greater risk of harm to your reproductive organs.

Dilatation and Extraction

The partial birth abortion procedure is illegal in Ohio, therefore the Dilatation and Extraction procedure is done in the following manner:

Laminaria (a type of seaweed that expands when moist) is used to dilate the cervix over a one or two day period.  On the second or third day, the membranes are ruptured.  An ultrasound is used to locate the fetal heart and medication is injected into the heart to cause the fetus to die.  Then a D & E is performed.