Summary
Per a court order, HHS is required to restore this website as of February 14, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. Any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate, and disconnected from the immutable biological reality that there are two sexes, male and female. The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children, by promoting their chemical and surgical mutilation, and to women, by depriving them of their dignity, safety, well-being, and opportunities. This page does not reflect biological reality and therefore the Administration and this Department rejects it.
An induced abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. It can be done two different ways:
- Medication abortion (also called medical abortion)
- Procedural abortion
An induced abortion is different from a spontaneous abortion. That is the loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week of pregnancy. It is more commonly known as a miscarriage.
If you are thinking of having an induced abortion, talk with your health care provider. Your provider can explain how the procedures are done, as well as the risks and benefits of each.
Learn More
- Abortion Care (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)
- Could an Elective Abortion Raise the Risk of Problems in a Future Pregnancy? (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
- D and C (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Dilation and curettage (D&C) (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
- Ending a Pregnancy (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
- Medical Abortion (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
- Pregnancy Choices: Raising the Baby, Adoption, and Abortion (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)
- Questions and Answers on Mifepristone for Medical Termination of Pregnancy Through Ten Weeks Gestation (Food and Drug Administration)
- What to Do When Your Pregnancy Is Unexpected (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
- Article: Prevalence and factors associated with post-abortion contraceptive uptake at Mbagala Hospital,...
- Article: Reproductive agency and the acceptability of divorce, abortion, and homosexuality among...
- Article: The association between a history of induced abortion for nonmedical reasons...
- Abortion -- see more articles
Patient Handouts
- Abortion - procedure - aftercare (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish