In the latest of a series of new techniques that blur the line between contraception and abortion, a growing number of abortion clinics nationwide are offering abortions to women as early as eight or 10 days after conception.
The new technique, pioneered by Dr. Jerry Edwards, the medical director at Planned Parenthood in Houston, is not available everywhere, and it is still relatively new in most clinics where it is offered.
Nonetheless, many reproductive-health experts say it may move up the timing of many abortions.
“With some of the ultrasensitive pregnancy tests now on the market, women can pick up a pregnancy even before they’ve missed their period,” said Dr. Michael Burnhill, vice president for medical affairs at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “For most women, the sooner they know they’re pregnant, and the sooner they decide what they’re going to do, the better.”
Though opinion polls show most Americans are more comfortable with early abortions than late ones, the National Right to Life Committee says there is no moral difference, because a unique human being begins to develop the moment an egg is fertilized and anything meant to stop that development is an abortion.
So far, 23 Planned Parenthood affiliates have begun offering very early abortions, many of them just recently.
What has made the new technique possible is a combination of better ultrasound imaging that shows the gestational sac in its earliest stages, and more sensitive pregnancy tests, some of which can detect pregnancy as soon as the embryo is implanted in the womb, a week to 10 days after fertilization.
The technique uses a hand-held syringe that avoids both the noise and cost of the vacuum pump used for later abortions.
Traditionally, doctors have been reluctant to perform abortions before six or seven weeks of gestation, because of the lack of accurate early pregnancy tests and the risk of incomplete abortion.
In theory, contraception is what prevents a pregnancy and abortion is what terminates a pregnancy. But just when pregnancy begins depends on who is doing the defining. Medically and legally, abortion-rights advocates say, pregnancy starts with implantation.
The Roman Catholic Church and the National Right to Life Committee believe that pregnancy begins with the union of a sperm and egg.
These philosophical differences remain as sharp and bitterly debated as ever. As a practical matter, the possibilities available to women who want to avoid child-bearing come close to erasing the line between contraception and abortion.
