At the clinic, you will meet your Patient Care Guide who will be with you throughout your entire journey in our clinic. The PCG will describe the medication abortion process for you, and help you understand what to expect both during and after you administer the pills. Then, one of our providers will confirm that you are less than 10 weeks into your pregnancy with a short ultrasound. We only rarely need to do a transvaginal ultrasound. Afterwards, we give you the mifepristone pill to take in the clinic and provide you with misoprostol to administer at home, as well as several medications to improve your pain and overall experience. You may then return home and the pregnancy will be passed over a couple of days, accompanied by bleeding and cramping that will likely be heavier than your normal period. A clinic staff member will follow-up over the phone with you a few days after your first appointment to check-in, and you will have access to a 24/7 phone line to reach the providers with any questions or concerns. The medication abortion requires either a follow-up ultrasound or blood test. Both options can confirm the success of the abortion pill and can be done in our office the week following your medication abortion. The blood test gives you the option to go to a location closer to home to have your blood drawn. We will then call you with the results.

When you arrive at the clinic, you will meet your Patient Care Guide who will be with you throughout your entire appointment. The PCG will describe the abortion process for you, and help you understand what to expect both during and after your procedure. You will also have as much time as you’d like to speak with our nurses and physicians to make sure all of your questions are answered. After a brief ultrasound, the physician will complete the abortion procedure. You may receive IV sedation medications for this procedure if you would like. Whether you opt for sedation or not, however, we use a combination of other methods to control pain including advanced local numbing techniques to decrease pain and cramping. The procedure, called a uterine aspiration, lasts only a couple of minutes. You may have light bleeding and cramping after the procedure for a couple of days, but you may resume normal activity the day of your procedure and return to your normal routine.
A clinic staff member will follow-up over the phone with you a few days after your first appointment to check-in, and you will have access to a 24/7 phone line to reach the physicians with any questions or concerns.

The first day is a pre-procedure appointment. You will meet your Patient Care Guide, a specialist in patient support who will help you understand what to expect both during and after your abortion procedure, and support you through each step in the process. You will then have as much time as you’d like to meet with a nurse and physician. Both will review the procedure process and answer all of your questions. Next, the physician will do a brief ultrasound and administer medications to start the process of opening (dilating) the cervix. If needed, we may need to perform a pelvic exam to place Dilapan to help your cervix open slowly overnight. Dilapan is a sterile synthetic polymer similar to laminaria. You may have light to mild cramping overnight. We will provide you with several pain medications to keep you comfortable and to minimize the cramping.

When you return on the second day, you will receive IV medications to make you feel comfortable and relaxed and to control pain. Once you are comfortable, the physician will complete the abortion procedure, which takes about 15 minutes or less. We use ultrasound guidance for all procedures to ensure that you are safe. Afterwards, you will be able to recover in the privacy and comfort of your own patient room, where your partner, family, or friends can be with you. Typically, the anesthesia medications wear off within two hours and patients may then return home or to their hotel.

This procedure is commonly referred to as a "dilation and evacuation" or "D&E." This procedure typically requires two appointments to give the cervix type to dilate slowly and gently overnight. In some cases, usually after 24 weeks and depending on medical history, we may need to perform the procedure over 3 days, but this is not common. 

The first day is a pre-operative appointment. You will meet your Patient Care Guide, a specialist in patient support who will help you understand what to expect both during and after your abortion procedure, and support you through each step in the process. You will then have as much time as you’d like to meet with a nurse and physician. Both will review the procedure process and answer all of your questions. Next, the physician will do a brief ultrasound and administer medications to help ease the process over the next two days.

When you return on the second day, your provider will perform a brief pelvic exam to place Dilapan to help your cervix open slowly overnight. Dilapan is a sterile synthetic polymer similar to laminaria. We will give you medication beforehand, and we take several additional steps to make sure that you are comfortable through the exam. You may have light to mild cramping overnight. We will provide you with several pain medications to keep you comfortable and to minimize the cramping.

When you return on the third day, you will receive IV medications to make you feel very comfortable and relaxed, and to control pain. Once you are comfortable and your cervix is dilated, the physician will complete the abortion procedure, which takes about 15 minutes or less. While the procedure itself is short, the dilation process can take anywhere from one hour to several hours, which you will spend in your private room with your partner, family, or friends. After the procedure, you will return to recover in the privacy and comfort of your own patient room, where your partner, family, or friends can be with you. Typically, the anesthesia medications wear off within two hours and you may return home or to their hotel.

The procedure is called the DuPont Induction-Evacuation. On the third day, a short induction period is followed by evacuation of the uterus under ultrasound guidance. In some cases, depending on medical history, we may be able to perform the procedure in 2 days, but this is not common. Abortions after 26 weeks are often referred to, inaccurately, as "late-term abortion" which is a corruption of "late trimester" abortion. "Late term abortion" is commonly used in the media but does not refer to a specific procedure.