Do Abortions Hurt?

Abortions in general should not be painful but some methods of abortions may cause you some discomfort. If you experience severe pain it could be a sign of some other more serious complication so you would need to seek further medical help.

In the earlier methods (up to 15 weeks) such as the abortion pill or vacuum aspiration methods where you don’t have any anaesthetic or a local anaesthetic you may experience some discomfort during the procedure and you will experience some period type pains afterwards but these can be managed with normal over the counter painkillers.

If you are later on in your pregnancy (from 15 weeks) and are having a surgical abortion you will be under general anaesthetic so will not be awake throughout the process so won’t feel anything. You will experience period type pains after having the procedure though and again these can be managed by taking normal painkillers. However if you choose to have a medically induced abortion, which is a method used between 19 and 24 weeks, you will experience contractions similar to those you would have when you are in labour. These contractions can last between 6 and 12 hours and you will be offered medicines to help you manage and control the pain.