Merz explains additional methods which include vacuum aspiration, dilation and curettage, and drug based abortion. Drug based abortion consists of the morning after pill and misoprostol. Some abortion methods cause serious complications in women but more so in teenagers. Such complications are hemorrhaging, uterine rupture, cervical lacerations, and endometritis. Incomplete operation, where the abortion process is not preformed properly, can result in death. .
Bender states, "Of the 1.5 million abortions performed in the United States annually, nearly one-third are on minors, many without parental consent or even knowledge". According to Illsley and Hall, it is estimated that less than two percent of abortions were performed for maternal health reasons (Burtchaell 62). On the other hand, in the 1980's teenage abortions .
remained in the low forties per 1,000 females of the age fifteen to nineteen. The number of teenage abortions in the early 1900's were forty per 1,000 females of the age fifteen to nineteen, thirty-eight in 1991, and thirty-six in 1992. Furthermore, Allan Gullmacher Institution reports that of the total number of births in the United States thirteen percent are from teens. The United States has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies than any other country. Statistics show that unmarried teenage girls fifteen to nineteen years of age in the 1950's had an estimated number of rate of 56,000 births. In 1970, 190,000 births were reported. Additionally, in 1990 there were 350,000 to 361,000 births including girls under age fifteen. About thirty percent of teenage girls choose to have abortions rather than give birth to a child. Abortion is a moral, not a medical problem, according to psychiatrist Thomas Szaszo (Burtchaell 67).
Anti-abortionalist say immature teenagers who made decisions to have abortions have suffered serious medical problems. Scientific research has successfully shown that abortion causes many psychological side effects.
