Before abortion was legalised many women died or had serious medical problems after attempting to induce abortions on themselves or going to untrained practitioners who performed abortions in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Since legal abortion, women have benefited from significant advances in medical technology and greater access to high quality abortion services. Women rarely die from legal abortions. According to the most recent statistics available in Australia there have only been 3 abortion related deaths in the last 15 years. That is 3 in over 1.2 million patients.
Abortion is a simple procedure.
The abortion is done by inserting an instrument called a speculum into the vagina so that the doctor can see the cervix. The doctor will then widen the cervical opening by using a series of sterile metal dilators, increasing the size until the cervical opening is 6 -9 mm. After the cervix is dilated, a sterile tube that is attached to a vacuum aspirator is inserted into the uterus. The foetal tissue and some of the lining of the uterus is removed. The whole procedure is simple and rapid taking 3 to 10 minutes.