Dilationand curettage (D&C) refers to the dilation (widening/opening) of the cervix and surgical removal of part of the lining of the uterus and/or contents of the uterus by scraping and scooping (curettage). It is a gynecologic procedure used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, and is the most commonly used method for first-trimester miscarriage or abortion.
Abortion in Australia is legal. It has been fully decriminalised in all jurisdictions, starting with Western Australia in 1998 and lastly in South Australia in 2021. Access to abortion varies between the states and territories: surgical abortions are readily available on request within the first 16 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, although with no limit on gestational term in the Australian Capital Territory. Later term abortions generally require the approval of two doctors, though are heavily restricted in Western Australia after 20 weeks.
Perioperative mortality has been defined as any death, regardless of cause, occurring within 30 days after surgery in or out of the hospital. Globally, 4.2 million people are estimated to die within 30 days of surgery each year. An important consideration in the decision to perform any surgical procedure is to weigh the benefits against the risks. Anesthesiologists and surgeons employ various methods in assessing whether a patient is in optimal condition from a medical standpoint prior to undertaking surgery, and various statistical tools are available. ASA score is the most well known of these.
An abortion clinic is a medical facility that provides abortions. Such clinics may be public medical centers, private medical practices or nonprofit organizations such as Planned Parenthood.
An urgent care center (UCC), also known as an urgent treatment centre in the United Kingdom, is a type of walk-in clinic focused on the delivery of urgent ambulatory care in a dedicated medical facility outside of a traditional emergency department (ED) located within a hospital. Urgent care centers primarily treat injuries or illnesses requiring immediate care but not serious enough to require an ED visit.
Anti-abortion violence is violence committed against individuals and organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion counseling. Incidents of violence have included destruction of property, including vandalism; crimes against people, including kidnapping, stalking, assault, attempted murder, and murder; and crimes affecting both people and property, including arson and terrorism, such as bombings.
Carol Downer is an American feminist lawyer and non-fiction author who focused her career on abortion rights and women's health around the world. She was involved in the creation of the self-help movement and the first self-help clinic in LA, which later became a model and inspiration for dozens of self-help clinics across the United States.
George Richard Tiller was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He gained national attention as the medical director of Women's Health Care Services, which was one of only three abortion clinics nationwide at the time which provided late termination of pregnancy.
Dr. Robert Douglas Spencer (1889–1969) was a general practitioner in Ashland, Pennsylvania, best known for his work as an illegal abortion provider in the decades before Roe vs. Wade. He operated his practice from the 1920s until his death and is believed to have performed some 40,000 abortions. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, graduating in 1915. He served in the U.S. Army and worked for a few years as a chief pathologist in a miners' hospital. He was known for embracing cutting-edge treatments for black lung disease and became one of the first doctors in the country to use sodium pentathol, radium pellets, and a bronchoscope.
Merle Hoffman is an American journalist, activist, and healthcare pioneer.
Abortion in the United States is legal, subject to balancing tests tying state regulation of abortion to the three trimesters of pregnancy, via the landmark 1973 case of Roe v. Wade, the first abortion case to be taken to the Supreme Court. Every state has at least one abortion clinic. However, individual states can regulate and limit the use of abortion or create "trigger laws", which would make abortion illegal within the first and second trimesters if Roe were overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States. Eight states—Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wisconsin—still have unenforced pre-Roe abortion bans in their laws, which could be enforced if Roe were overturned. In accordance with the US Supreme Court case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), states cannot place legal restrictions posing an undue burden for "the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus."
Kermit Barron Gosnell is an American former physician and serial killer. Gosnell was convicted of the murders of three infants who were born alive after using drugs to induce birth, was convicted of manslaughter in connection with the death of one woman during an abortion procedure, and was convicted of several other medically related crimes.
Susan Wicklund is an American physician. Until her retirement, Dr Wicklund was the sole provider of abortions in some areas of the midwestern United States and was a prominent target of violence and harassment from opponents of abortion rights.
As of September 1, 2021, abortion is illegal in Texas once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. The Texas Heartbeat Act prohibits abortion when there is a detectable heartbeat, which may be as early as 6 weeks into a woman's pregnancy. Before this, elective abortions were allowed up to 20 weeks post-fertilization. In addition to measures passed by the Texas Legislature, there have been anti-abortion efforts at the local level, with 30 Texas cities banning abortion.
Abortion in Massachusetts is legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy.
Abortion in Michigan is legal.
Abortion in New Hampshire is legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy as of January 1, 2022, when a new law went into effect. Abortion was criminalized in the state by 1900. In June 2003, the state passed a parental notification law, repealing it four years later before passing a new one in 2011. New Hampshire's abortion laws have been heard before the US Supreme Court, including the case Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in 2006. The number of abortion clinics in New Hampshire has declined over the years, with eighteen in 1982, sixteen in 1992 and four in 2014. In 2010, there were three publicly funded abortions in the state; all three were federally funded. There are active abortion rights and anti-abortion rights activists in the state.
Abortion in Maryland is legal. 64% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Abortion in Wyoming is legal. In a 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center, 48% of Wyoming adults asked said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Abortion was a criminal offence in Wyoming in 1950. Less-restrictive abortion legislation was introduced in 1997 but not passed. In 2013, a fetal heartbeat bill was introduced in the Wyoming House of Representatives but never made it out of committee. In January 2017, a mandatory ultrasound law went into effect, however it lacks an enforcement mechanism.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-abortion government officials in several American states enacted or attempted to enact restrictions on abortion, characterizing it as a non-essential procedure that can be suspended during the medical emergency. The orders have led to several legal challenges and criticism by abortion-rights groups and several national medical organizations, including the American Medical Association. Legal challenges on behalf of abortion providers, many of which are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, have successfully stopped some of the orders on a temporary basis, though bans in several states have not been challenged.
