Surgical abortion is—surgery. But now, a bill has been introduced in the California Legislature to allow non doctors to perform this life-taking surgery. From the San Francisco Chronicle report:
As states across the country are passing laws to restrict access to abortion, California lawmakers are considering a significant expansion of who would be able to perform the procedure in the state. Under a bill that passed its first committee hearing Tuesday, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants would be able to perform what is known as an “aspiration” abortion, which is the most common abortion procedure and takes place in the first trimester of a pregnancy
This involves vacuuming out the fetus, either manually or with a machine. From WEBMD:
There are two methods of vacuum aspiration (also called suction aspiration):
- Manual vacuum. This procedure can be used around 5 to 12 weeks after the last menstrual period (early first trimester). It involves the use of a specially designed syringe to apply suction. This method is not available everywhere, but it may be more available than machine aspiration in some geographic areas.
- Machine vacuum. This procedure is a common method used in the first 5 to 12 weeks (first trimester) of pregnancy. Machine vacuum aspiration involves the use of a hollow tube (cannula) that is attached by tubing to a bottle and a pump, which provides a gentle vacuum. The cannula is passed into the uterus, the pump is turned on, and the tissue is gently removed from the uterus.
Yes, the “tissue” with a beating heart.
Vacuuming fetuses is safe—for the woman, it kills offspring—but complications can occur, as set forth in the article.
California is probably the most pro abortion state in the union, with voters twice deciding parents should not even be told if their children get abortions. Nor, as far as I am aware, do women have any difficulty finding an abortion clinic.
A study of 41 non doctor abortionists found they could vacuum fetuses safely. But once the law expanded the abortionist pool, that could certainly change, depending on oversight. But it strikes me that the real point of this bill is either to increase the number of abortions or to send a pick-a-finger message to pro life states about what they can do with their recently enacted restrictions.
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