I do know that legally an aborted fetus (and even miscarriages are termed aborted pregnancies medically) is legally supposed to be sent to pathology along with the placenta to make sure all parts are there.
Because if any portion of the fetus or placenta are left in the woman's body it can cause her to hemmorhage. The uterus continues to contract, and if there is nothing to contract on then those contractions are what helps stop the bleeding. But if the placenta is still there (which is highly vascular) - then the uterus contracting forces more and more blood through the plancental scraps and cause her to bleed to death.
When I was young I heard many stories of pregnant women who had gone to what they called a 'back street doctor' and suffered terrible harm, even lost their lives, because they trusted someone to perform an abortion who was not bound by any sort of medical ethics or accountability.
Even when I was a teenager, there were very few hospitals that were available for legal procedures. Some women, especially the very young, would get ideas in their minds that they could cause a miscarriage by various means, and cause more damage than the back street quacks.
I heard most stories from nurses ~ I think infection was a real danger, because I would hear of the ravages of high fevers more than the loss of blood. I wonder if such things still happen as often as they did back then. It's always the people on the front lines in healthcare, nurses and PAs, who see the worst.
That is probably why most pro-life friends in the medical community are 'pro-choice' - and very supportive of programs that prevent pregnancy.
Sarah Palin's daughter, and Governor Palin herself, were quoted in the Fox interview as saying that abstinence is 'unrealistic' - and while I would not want to eliminate that as an option to promote with teens - there must be other education and social programs we can promote that would reduce or work to eliminate the high number of abortions that we have in the USA.
When I read that 90% of women with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to have an abortion, it's obvious to me that many otherwise pro-life women make the decision not to bring a child with Down syndrome into the world - especially since so many 'pro-choice' advocates have chosen to give birth to and raise their sons and daughters who have Down syndrome.
I can't help but think that we can do more to support women who are pregnant, and to support mothers raising young children, so they do not make that choice for 'practical' reasons. It's heartbreaking to think any woman would have a reason to make that choice, but they certainly do, and probably more so with an economy in collapse.
Pam W
SE of Seattle
