Similar to the Caesarean Section, this method is generally used if chemical methods such as salt poisoning or prostaglandins fail (see pp. 12-14). Incisions are made in the abdomen and uterus and the baby, placenta, and amniotic sac are removed.  Babies are sometimes born alive during this procedure, raising questions as to how and when these infants are killed and by whom.

This method offers the highest risk to the health of the mother, because the potential for rupture during subsequent pregnancies is appreciable.  In the first two years of legal abortion in New York State, the death rate from hysterectomy was 271.2 deaths per 100,000 cases.

The risks of hysterectomy for the mother have long been known.

They include:

• peritonitis,

• rupture of the operation scar in a future pregnancy,

• thrombosis and

• pulmonary embolism
  
  
  
  * (The [Lane] Report on the Working of the Abortion Act, Vol 1, HAMS, 1974).