Thank you. Yes, it was such a hard decision. I'm still sad and probably will think about it off and on throughout my life...Thinking "what could have been or what would have been"...But I think this was for the best - at least at this point in my life. :cry:

It is sad that you were in a position where you felt you had no choice, and hopefully someday society will provide appropriate support for women in your situation. But or you, at that time, whatever you felt that you had to do was the right decision.

Hi,

this may sound dumb, but i'm not even sure if i'm pregnant yet. My test said negative but im still very late.I'm freaking out and I know that abortion would have to be my choice if I am pregnant. Thursday I have an appointment to get a test done at a planned parenthood center.

I know that abortion has to be a very scary experience but I must do what I have to. I was just wondering how much the procedure costs. If theres some sort of payment plans or something. Thanks.

Www.Gynpages.Com has lists of abortion clincis in most states! It has the abortion clinics website with prices, info on anesthesia, and procedure explainations. Iit is an excellent resourse. There are all kinds of clinics, not just ones owned by a certain company.

Delaware. And i'll look there, thanks.

debate forum material, not supportive. Plus if all they wanted to do was give more abortions they wouldn't bother selling birth control.

i used this forum prior to making my decision as one of the ways to get informed about the medical abortion process and people's experiences. reading this forum on this site and others on the similar topics scared the bejesus out of me. i'm glad it did, and though my experience was positive and very different than what many of these people have shared, their negative experiences made me realize what i was possibly going up against and to truly dig deep within and be absolutely sure i wanted to go thru with the medical abortion.

here's my experience.
first off, i'm 30 with two kids - an 11 month old and a six year old. i am happily married but this pregnancy came at a very bad time. i won't get into it, as it's no one else's business, but it was right for us. one day, i will probably want another child, but not now.
other than that, i'm 30 years old and very healthy and really no medical issues to speak of, ever. just a 'normal' healthy woman. my normal period is very mild and i don't get cramps (which may account for why i did not have a very painful experience), just lower backaches.

when i called my dr.'s office, they told me they would not prescribe the abortion pill. so i found a planned parenthood in downtown chicago (near north side office) that would. there was a long wait to speak with the counselor on the phone but once i did that, everything proceeded smoothly. what she told me was short, to the point, and turned out to be true. i scheduled my appointment for a saturday and dreaded going every day leading up to the appointment.

the day of:
it was just the way they explained it on the phone. i arrived on time, filled out paperwork and was nervous. after about an hour of paperwork/waiting, i was called to go to another waiting room. not much time passed, and they gave me an ultrasound (yes, with the probe (inside your vagina), but big whoop - it was not uncomfortable at all and it's the best way to tell how far along you are) -- but because people either on this forum or another complained about it, i was aware before arriving that they may use the probe for ultrasound. the tech was quick and kind and told me how far along i was and then i was taken to another room (dressed, of course) to have my blood pressure taken, my temp taken and my finger pricked to see if i had positive or negative blood (i think the negative people have to get a special shot before taking the meds at the end, but i have a positive blood type so that was that). the only complaint i had was how rough the lady was who pricked my finger - my finger still hurts! it will be fine though. but listen, if my finger prick was the worst thing about this whole process, that is GOOD. then, the billing chick saw me and i didn't have to pay anything because my insurance covered it (i will have to pay a small deductible to my insurance co later though), then i went back and waited a while, agonizing about what it will be like, etc., and then was called in to speak to a counselor/dr who explained the process of taking the medication, the pain relief, what to expect, warning signs, etc etc, and answered all of my questions well. she then had me sign some paperwork and brought me into the 'recovery room' where i sat with two other women who were going to receive the medical abortion meds too. we all were given bags with our medication in it, and a tech/nurse spoke to the three of us together to explain our meds to us in detail. she had us open bottles and verify the correct number of pills were in there and then a doctor came over to talk to us in more detail and to administer our first pill, the mifepristone. i felt very organized and i understood the instructions. they then gave each of us a portable cd player with headphones to again listen to the instructions, to make sure we understood all of them. we were given water and could eat snacks while listening.

after taking the mifepristone, i felt dizzy and sort of disoriented, but it passed in about 30 minutes. later in the day, i'd have little boughts of dizziness but it wasn't a big deal.

i went home knowing i needed to make sure i had supplies and a comfortable place set up in my house for the next day's medical abortion, the part that had me really nervous, because i didn't know how my body would react.

i reccommend you have the following things on the second day for comfort:
all your instructions,
a phone,
comfy pillows, blankets
any remotes,
a heating pad or hot water bottle (i started with a hot water bottle but switched to heating pad which worked very well),
maxi pads
nausea medication (otc) (it turns out I didn't need this),
diarrhea medication (otc) (i also didn't need this),
all four pill bottles from planned parenthood (the ibuprofen, the tylenol 3 with codeine, the misoprostol, and the antibiotic),
a thermometer,
a pitcher of water with glass,
gatorade (or whatever you like),
small snacks/fruit.

so, i had my area all set to go by the next day. 30 mins before i was scheduled to take the misoprostol tablets, i took the ibuprofen, which they said was better for cramps to start out with. then i took the misoprostol bucally (between my cheeks/gums) because i was told at pp that it delivered less severe results than when taken orally all at once. I put the four misoprostol tabs in my cheeks and let them dissolve for 30 mins. after this, my gums hurt a bit, but they are okay now (four hours later), then swallowed the rest of the tablets. within 30 mins i had some small feelings that stuff was going on in my uterus, but really nothing much yet. within about one hour, i had some bigger cramps and aching, pretty bad chills, and tension in my jaw. i had a slight fever too, which is expected. the cramps that were the strongest were NO WHERE NEAR CHILDBIRTH, and were tolerable. the strongest cramps were probably a 5 out of 10 on my own pain scale. i also felt i had to go #2 a bit and eventually did but there was no diarrhea. within two hours, i took the tylenol 3 tab (they told me to alternate between ibuprofen/tylenol 3 every two hours). by then, i was tired and i had some small amounts of blood come out. by the next hour, i had changed my pad once and began to bleed more heavily and regularly with no pain but just constant aches (similar to my bad day of my period). i'm still bleeding heavily and aching, but the bleeding is normal from what they told me to expect). it's 4.5 hours later and i'm going to take a nap after i finish this post. my fever and chills are gone and i'm clearheaded again. my pain level now is more like discomfort and probably a 4 for me.

the key is to be prepared, know what to expect, ask questions, be confident in your decision, and have support. i am a healthy woman with generally normal medical reactions, and this is my encounter. i'm posting this so that others get positive information about this process, instead of just negative, scary ones. i wish i had read more of these prior to my appointment!

i wish anyone going thru this lots of luck! i probably won't check this again, so if anyone has comments, i won't be responding.

i return to pp in two weeks for an ultrasound to see if my abortion was successful. in the event it's not, they will give me the option of taking more medication again, or scheduling a surgical abortion. they also told me the surgical abortion option would NOT cost more money at that point (something i didn't know and was worried about previously). if it doesn't work, i will probably opt for the medication again, as the nurse told me if it doesn't work for me (5 to 8 out of 100 people are not successful), a second time around with the medication should work, if the first round doesn't.

i feel like i can go to work tomorrow too. we'll see what tonight brings, but i feel like it's working and i also feel much better then i thought i would.

Im 33 have 2 kids and ended up getting an abortion on friday may -29th -2009 .. I was almost 9 weeks pregnant and I never ever had an abortion before ,this was my first and my last !!! my surgical abortion was so bad !! the doctor did not give me any numbing medication and I felt every thing every stabe he stabed me almost 10 times & the painful vacium sucksion that felt like its suckioning my guts out and every painful violant contracrion worst than labor all while im screaming ,crying and buging the doctor to stop and give me a shot to numb me down but his nurse would tell me no we can't and she is holding me down for the whole abortion so i wont move on the dr while he is slotering me with out numbing my uterus or cervix and it turns out the shots they gave me befor the procuder is nausia medication ,labor inducing medication to produce very strong vailont contractions ( very very painful contractions because i was not numb ed) this medication is to help the doctor in the abortion and the last medication that was in the shot was a kind of valium or demerol which is to relax u and make unable to move and stop the doctor from all the pain he made me feel and this medication makes it easy for the nurse to hold me down and control me throught out the whole extreamly painful abortion and it will lower my screams and cries ,when he was done the doctor made sure to cary the clear glass jar 2/3 full of blood and some tan color tissu and stood there in my face acting like he is talkin to the nurse and he makes sure that i was looking at that jar he is holding ,so he made sure i would see and feel even more bad and worst than i already do !!! I don't think this doctor had a right to treat me this way , he totaly done me wrong I think for his own personal feelings about abortion and wanting to teach us women who chose abortion a lesson and make it as painful as possible cause we made that choice!!Belive me if I have ANY RIGHTS by law I will try to sue this doctor for his licence cause he must have done this and still doing this to many other women out there and because we r so ashamed of what we have done (abortion)that we keep quiet and shut up after all the pain he put us through cause he knows that we will keep shut cause its a very sensetive privite issue to take to court and talk in front of many about doing this shamful thing having an abortion ,which is a nightmare!!!! So Please ladies and girls out there make sure that u ask alot of questions and try to find out exactly from the doctor that if he does not put u to sleep is he going to give u a NUMBING anesthitic shot that u dont feel any pain if u r awake throught the abortin and make sure that its not just a relaxing med like volium & demerol !!! I need to know if what the doctor did was ok and anybody else go trought what I went Throght and what the doctor did to me and doing my abortion with out using a numbing medication and let me feel all of that pain ?? did any one had this happen to them or heard about it happening to someone else ???

vegaspain1,

I am sorry for what you had to experience This really does not not sound good. I think you should seek some professional advice regarding what was done to you as this really does not sound right. Going through termination performed in the correct way is traumatic enough and what you had to go through sounds very very wrong. I hope you get some help or advise so no one else has the misfortune to fall into the hands of this very questionable doctor.

Good Luck with your recovery x

I had a medication abortion 72 hours ago and I'm very happy I did it. Really, there was no question in my mind that I did not want a child right now. I was also not very secure in my relationship, even though the man I'm with seemed like a family oriented guy and we'd been together for nearly 2 years. However, a few days after I found out I was pregnant (I was using condoms and the rhythm method, and even though I thought I was doing everything right, my cycle was way off), I found out that he was hiding his relationships with other women from me. You see, it's ALWAYS best to trust your gut. This made it very clear to me that my decision was right.

I had a ton of fear about going to a Planned Parenthood clinic for an abortion. I read on the internet that it was painful and cold and impersonal, and many women were traumatized from the experience. I found out I was pregnant less than two weeks after conception, so I thought I would try an herbal abortion. I took various herbs for about two weeks, all to no avail, though they did make me feel bad because they were rather toxic. I didn't want to delay my medical abortion for fear it would be even more painful later down the road, so the soonest I was able, I made the appointment and went in.

Having a little over two weeks to mentally adjust to the idea was good for my calmness level. I am very glad I went to Planned Parenthood in the end, because like one in every seven white women, I am Rh negative. That means that without an $85 shot, my antibodies would attack any future pregnancy and I would be at risk for miscarriage for the rest of my life. I didn't know that when I was taking the herbs, and if I'd known I'd never have tried it. I should also say that the Planned Parenthood staff was friendly, accessible, caring, and professional. The tone in the office was relaxed and it made me feel secure about the whole thing. I really can't say enough good things about them and I was so grateful. I almost didn't expect the protesters outside, silly me, I thought that only happened in redneck America and not in a major metropolitan area. I profoundly wish that they were not there, but it did not affect my opinion in any way.

I took the misoprostol on a Sunday, and they gave me some Tylenol with codeine for the pain, which let me sleep most of the day. I didn't bleed a ton, the cramps weren't that bad, I did throw up but once that was over I felt fine. I passed the tiny pregnancy without even noticing late in the day. Staying in bed and watching movies all day, the pain was there but I took it easy and the whole process was almost pleasant with the mental and emotional relief it gave me.

The next few days have been very tough for me however, as no one warned me that it would be this painful. The sensation for me is a lot like having been in surgery and trying to walk around the next day. I called their emergency line last night and they recommended I take 4 Advil every 8 hours. They advised me that there could be pain up to 4-6 weeks, which was not what they told me in the clinic. I thought I'd be up and running around by the end of Sunday. Though they do say that you should not have sex or do any strenuous exercise for two weeks, so I guess I should have read between the lines, I wish I had been more aware before I began this whole process.

In the end, I'm not sorry, I feel empowered by taking my destiny in my own hands. It was a very lonely decision, because I didn't want anyone's judgment I didn't tell anyone, even my family. But I'm finally on the other side and I'm proud that I had the strength to do this. No one should attempt it all alone (my boyfriend ended up coming along) but I believe that I did the mature and responsible thing. I'm in my late twenties and could have continued with the pregnancy. But it was not what I wanted from life and I strongly strongly believe that what I did was correct a mistake, not "take the easy way out." No one should force a woman, directly or by dogmatic rhetoric, to have a child she doesn't want.

It surprises me that women don't take super precautions at not becoming pregnant. The pill and a condom or spermicide or something. I always used 2 forms of birth control until I KNEW I wanted a baby. Why? Because for me the "choice" was in the "having the sex" part and not the "having the baby" part. I can't imagine that I would use the power of my choice for something so awful - the tears and anguish described in the prior posts bear this out-it is awful. I decide I would use the power of my choice far better - sex or no sex....and 2 forms of birth control. No one night stands or casual sex just in case the birth control amazingly failed. Pregnancy is a big deal and made for women not little girls who aren't ready to deal with it - they don't need to get pregnant in the first place. Now that I am married and have had a baby, I am more relieved than ever at the precautions I took. You see, I've had the baby, and now I know. I couldn't have lived with myself....an abortion from an unwanted pregnancy would have really haunted me now. Be very careful girls...I think the "abortion" that our popular media pushes can really damage your head in the long run. Even if it doesn't, if you are not ready to deal with a pregnancy, then you need to make choices that keep your from getting pregnant - no excuses.

Which popular media pushes abortion?

I understand completely, but if you have to ask yourself if your a bad person with any decision you're making, it's probably a wrong decision.

If you're not constantly evaluating the outcomes of decisions you make, especially decisions about the lives of others will be affected then you are a bad person.