Bio 100-02: The Dangers Of Abortion

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Bio 100-02

Various abortion practices have been circulating for thousands of years. Before our technological advancements in medicine and surgery, women had to resort to more dangerous means for wanted abortions. The various methods range from jumping from a high point and inducing a miscarriage by landing on the stomach to deliberately standing in the snow for long periods of time in attempt to contract hypothermia, which was believed to be fatal for the fetus; however, these methods today would be dubbed as “back-alley,” or illegal, abortions due to their risky nature. It was not until the 1880’s did medical practitioners even begin to perform surgical abortions; and even then, there was a high risk

Previously, abortions were also surgically performed, in which the cervix was mechanically dilated and her unborn baby was manually removed from her body. This, as a result however, posed a high risk of trauma to the cervix that responds to the body’s hormones—not a doctor’s tools—to remain closed during a pregnancy in order to sustain that pregnancy; and the damage, moreover, can also be suffered by the uterus, which is where the fetus develops before birth. With damage to these organs, any appropriate development for subsequent pregnancies are hindered. Therefore, the woman is put at greater risk for faulty subsequent pregnancies, with possibilities ranging from premature birth or miscarriage to infertility all together. Modern technology, fortunately, has developed ways to manipulate biology so that abortions no longer have to require the mechanical disruption of the cervix or

Because as opposed to forcing a woman’s cervix open, we now utilize the gemeprost and misoprostol hormones to help soften and dilate the cervix; this mimics the genital movements that can be found during actual childbirth, and these natural stimulation then creates less threat to the woman. And similarly in 2001, the progesterone hormone was determined as a contributing role to maintaining pregnancies, later paving way for the dug mifepristone. Mifepristone is a drug that was developed to assist a woman who wished to terminate her pregnancy by shutting off the effect of the progesterone, which would then reader the woman’s body completely unable to maintain her pregnancy. This drug is often used congruent lay with the aforementioned cervical-softening hormones (gemeprost and misoprostol), and thus was antecedent to the procedure for medical abortion. A new study led by Gordon Smith from the University of Cambridge, moreover, has provided research that exemplifies how the number of defective pregnancies and/or birth following abortion has progressively decreased since the 1980’s; in fact, from 2000 onwards, the strong risk factor for such circumstances is virtually nonexistent. The novel successes of our technological advancements also show growing favor in recent statistics: utilization of medical abortion has increased gradually from 18 percent to 68 percent from 1992 to 2008; and