During the second, thirty-six to forty-eight hours later, the woman is given a dose of artificial prostaglandin's initiating uterine contractions. This causes the embryonic baby to be expelled from the uterus (Description of abortion Techniques). The third visit, about two weeks later, can determine whether the abortion has been completed or if further surgery is necessary. Methotrexate is administered by intramuscular injection. It attacks growing cell of the trophoblast, which functions as the life support system for the baby. This injection causes the immediate disintegration of sheltering environment in which the embryo lives without food or fluids, the living helpless fetus dies. This dangerous method is rarely used because of its unpredictable side affects. The second includes the thirteenth to twenty-eighth week. Dilation and Evacuation (D&E), similar to D&C, uses forceps with sharp metal jaws to grasp the parts of the baby and tear them away from the body. The only side affects is profuse bleeding and impossible cervical laceration. The rest of the procedures can be done during either the second or third trimester. These include Salt Poisoning, Partial Birth Abortion and Hysterotomy, which is a method generally used when other methods have failed. Babies are sometimes alive during this procedure. This method offers the highest risk to the health of the mother because of the potential of rupturing. Some immediate risks include infection leading t o sterility or death, excessive bleeding, high fever, a perforated uterus leading to sterility, shock and death. Abortion also increases the risk of breast cancer, tubal pregnancy, miscarriage, premature birth, and sterility.
The Catholic Church teaches that all humans have a right to live, from the moment of conception until the natural time of death. According to these teachings, a person living when as young as an embryo until the last second of life before death.
