Abortion

Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando provides medication abortion and surgical abortion until 17.6 weeks of pregnancy at our West Side clinic. For more information, or to schedule an appointment, please call 407-246-1788 and our friendly staff will be happy to assist you.

Abortion ends a pregnancy before birth.  It occurs naturally in 15–40 percent of all established pregnancies — when an embryo or fetus stops developing and the body expels it.  This is called spontaneous abortion, miscarriage, or early pregnancy loss.  Women choose abortion in less than 25 percent of the 6,000,000 pregnancies that are diagnosed in the U.S. every year — 50 percent of which are unintended.  This is called induced abortion.

Women have turned to abortion to end unwanted pregnancies throughout the ages.  In the U.S., induced abortion was common among Native Americans, and it was legal from colonial times to the middle of the 19th century.  But unclean, primitive medical practices made it very dangerous.  To protect women’s lives, laws against abortion began to be passed during the mid-1800s.  But by the middle of the  20th century, cleaner, more advanced medical procedures made safe abortion possible.  All U.S. laws against abortion were overturned in 1973 by the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.  Today, abortion is legal nationwide and is one of the safest of all available medical procedures.

 A woman has many decisions to make when considering abortion. If you decide to end a pregnancy, your health care provider may talk with you about a few different abortion methods. You may be offered the option to have an abortion procedure in a clinic or your health care provider’s office, which is the kind of abortion discussed on this page. Or you may be offered the abortion pill.

Whether you’re thinking about having an abortion procedure, you’re concerned about a woman who may be having one, or you’re someone who’s just curious about abortion methods, you may have many questions. Here are some of the most common questions we hear women ask about abortion procedures. We hope you find the answers helpful. And if you’re thinking of having an abortion procedure, we hope they help you decide what is best for you.

Use the navigation bar on the left to learn more about abortion procedures. If you are under 18 and seeking an abortion in Florida, please be sure to read the Abortion Information for Minors tab.