Working with two anti-abortion groups, Resurrection Medical Center, the largest hospital of one of Chicago's largest Catholic health care systems, has put in place a practice that when a woman arrives in the emergency room with an activist seeking to stop a second-trimester abortion, she should be treated immediately. Since October, four women have arrived at the hospital seeking to halt their abortions, and three of them had their abortions stopped.....
The chance to stop a second-trimester abortion exists because it is a two- or three-day procedure. On the first day, doctors insert a dilator, often bundles of dried seaweed called laminaria, to soften a woman's cervix. The woman returns a second day so doctors either can insert more laminaria or another dilator, or remove the fetus and complete the abortion.
If a woman changes her mind after the dilator has been inserted and seeks to reverse the process, doctors can remove the laminaria. Ideally, the cervix will close naturally so the pregnancy can continue. But that's not always the case.....
But advocates for the Pro-Life Action League and The Women's Center insist that abortion providers aggressively dissuade women from interrupting the procedure. Advocates believe it's important for anti-abortion "sidewalk counselors" to offer a woman a medical alternative before she gets too far along, regardless of the risks.
FULL STORY
