Voluntary abortion: what to do to terminate a pregnancy
Voluntary abortion is the interruption of the gestation period, decided directly by the woman, who for various reasons may wish not to continue with her pregnancy. Voluntary termination of pregnancy, also known as IVG, consists in the removal of the embryo or fetus, and in Italy it can be performed within the first 90 days of pregnancy itself, once ascertained by a doctor. Then there are the cases of therapeutic abortion, admitted up to the 22nd-23rd week of pregnancy, in the event that the fetus presents serious anomalies that put his or the mother's life at risk.
An "expert explains specifically what it means to suffer a miscarriage. Here is some useful information on the most common of abortions.
What to do if you have decided to have an abortion
See also
Therapeutic abortion: when is it done, and how does it happen?
If you have the typical symptoms of a pregnancy, it is good to check immediately with a test (buy it on Amazon for € 8.34), or by contacting a clinic for a safer test. If you have decided to have an abortion, even for reasons that do not concern your health or that of the baby, you must contact your doctor as soon as possible. You can go to your gynecologist, or directly to an IVG center. Italian law provides for an interview with a doctor, who informs about the procedure that will be used for the abortion, and has a general cognitive interview with the patient. If you are a minor, you must be accompanied and authorized to abort by a parent or legal guardian. After the interview, the doctor issues a certificate: you have seven days to reflect on what to do, giving yourself a pause for reflection. After that, you can go to any hospital, public or private, to abortion. Voluntary abortion is free in public hospitals. Except in particular medical cases, in which the doctor himself orders the abortion in day hospital, it is advisable to have an abortion in the first eight weeks from conception: in this case the risks are practically zero.
If you need more info, the book "Abortion. True and false reasons" by Enrico Pagano can be of great help, because it explains everything that surrounds this situation in a scientific and reasonable way. - Buy it for € 8.80.
The types of voluntary abortion
There are different types of termination of pregnancy, provided that obviously it is not a spontaneous abortion, which is a completely different case and has only physiological origins. In fact, there is surgical abortion, which involves surgery in the hospital, and pharmacological abortion, which makes use of the famous RU486, an abortion pill not to be confused with the morning after pill. The choice between the types of abortion is often indicated by the progress of gestation: the abortion pill is in fact indicated in pregnancies in the first weeks, while when the pregnancy is more advanced, surgical abortion is used. Often the abortion is not exactly a choice of the woman, but a medical necessity, to secure the life and health of the mother. In these cases, we speak of a therapeutic abortion.
The surgical abortion
Among the various types of surgical abortion are distinguished:
- instrumental emptying: this is the most common method, takes place under local anesthesia and lasts only 5 minutes
- hysterosuction: it is performed only within the first eight weeks of pregnancy, and involves aspiration of the embryo and endometrium with a cannula inserted into the uterus, and does not even involve dilation of the cervix
- dilation and revision of the uterine cavity: usually performed between the eighth and the twelfth week of gestation. Under local or total anesthesia, the cervix is dilated to introduce a suction cannula proportionate to the size of a larger fetus
- dilation and emptying: used only for pregnancies beyond the twelfth week (after the terms of the Italian law of 1978 for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy). It consists in the mechanical dilation of the cervical canal, with the removal of the fetus and the aspiration of amniotic fluid and placenta. It is the type of surgical abortion that is performed only in case of risks for the mother's health and for malformations of the fetus
Pharmacological abortion: the RU486 pill
Pharmacological abortion involves the use of an abortion pill, RU 486. It contains the hormone mifepristone, a chemical steroid that causes abortion in the first two months of pregnancy. RU486 is supported by misoprostol (or gemeprost) which is taken two days after administration of the abortion pill. The abortion takes place within one / two days (through bleeding that precedes taking the second pill) and lasts just over a week. Here are two things to know about the abortion pill:
- In Italy, the use of the RU486 pill was authorized in 2009, after a few years of experimentation and almost ten in which it was already used to stop the development of fetuses affected by Cushing's syndrome, but only a year later it was actually put on the market
- Be careful not to equate the RU486 pill with the morning after pill - these are two very different drugs. The morning after pill works by stimulating an important production of progestin hormones to ensure that the fertilized egg does not nest in the uterine cavity, RU486 intervenes once conception and nesting have already taken place
To know
If you have decided to have an abortion, talk to your doctor or gynecologist. You can also go to a family clinic. Voluntary termination of pregnancy is not a contraceptive method, today it involves few risks, but it is nevertheless not an easy experience in any case, especially from an emotional point of view. It is good to remember that it is your right, that no one has the right to judge you for your free choice or to care about their will. As Dr. Claudia Ravaldi writes, "Abortion is an event that marks the experience of many women and can affect their subsequent parenting with the children who come after".
The IVG, a victory for women
On May 22, 1978, after years of demonstrations, struggles, protests and political battles, Law 194 came into force in Italy, which decriminalizes "voluntary abortion, thus making it legal, and defines how to access it."
Before that historical date, the voluntary termination of pregnancy constituted, according to the Italian penal code, a crime.
A woman who procured an abortion faced one to four years in prison and whoever aborted a consenting woman faced two to five years of imprisonment.
Article 4 of Law no. 194, on the other hand, allows women to resort to voluntary abortion in the first 90 days of pregnancy "Who accuses circumstances for which the continuation of pregnancy, childbirth or maternity would entail a serious danger to her physical or mental health, in relation or to her state of health, or to her economic, social or family conditions, or the circumstances in which conception occurred, or forecasts of anomalies or malformations of the conceived »
Voluntary abortion is therefore a right for a woman, even if in reality the law is not sufficient to guarantee this right.
Conscientious objection in fact allows a doctor to refuse to perform an abortion, for moral and religious reasons. This makes it difficult for many Italian women to access abortion, especially in the South, where in certain regions the percentage of objecting doctors is even higher than 80%.
For more useful information on voluntary abortion, you can visit the Epicentro website.
