Some symptoms felt after medical abortions include nausea, severe cramping, vomiting, and bleeding. Also, further risks and complications are infection, retained tissue or body parts, perforation of the uterus, hemorrhaging, cervical laceration, missed abortion or continued pregnancy, blood in the uterus, and possible complications with future pregnancies. While techniques are improving, there is still a high probability of negative physical side-effects, and almost certain negative psychological side-effects. One of the most disturbing things about this is that many women aren't informed about the side-effects of abortion.
Abortion has been practiced around the world since ancient times as a crude method of birth control and has been seen as a controversial issue for hundreds of years. As more people discuss it, new dimensions are added to the argument, and this may be why laws vary from country to country and have changed so many times. Abortion in England and Wales was first made illegal in the nineteenth century. Before then, English Common Law had allowed abortion, provided it was carried out before the woman felt the fetus move. At this time, if the abortion law was broken there were no fixed penalties, and the woman having the abortion was not necessarily held responsible. In 1803, the law changed and abortion became a criminal offense from the time of conception with penalties of up to life imprisonment for both the pregnant woman and the abortionist. In 1929, "The Infant Life Preservation Act" amended the previous law so that abortion was no longer a felony under certain circumstances. The new law made it illegal to kill a child "capable of being born live." Twenty-eight weeks was the age set at which a fetus was assumed to be able to survive. In 1967, "The Abortion Act" was passed; it permitted the termination of pregnancies subject to certain conditions. Regulations under the act meant that abortions must be performed by a registered practitioner in a National Health Service hospital or a clinic approved by the Department of Health.