This past June, fifty years after Roe vs. Wade was enacted, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling and returned abortion legislation to individual states, which led 14 states to ban abortions.
In many states, abortion is seen as a moral and not a medical issue, and in 13 of those 14 states, abortion is prohibited even in the early stages of pregnancy, and some call women who choose to abort "murderers."
Images by the MYA Network, a network of British clinicians and activists who came together when some states tried to state that abortion was a "non-essential" medical treatment, were published in The Guardian, and show what pregnancy actually looks like in the first nine weeks. The images are surprising.
This the baby you're talking about? Five weeks of pregnancy. Photograph: MYA Network pic.twitter.com/dTPe8hnfnI
— Jane D'oh! (@Jane_Doh) October 19, 2022
Doctors from the MYA network used a gentle hand-held device that removes the tissue. This type of extraction keeps the tissue intact.
People on social media reacted with shock over how it really looks. People hardly believe what's extracted.
The medical definitions
Doctors determine pregnancy from the first day of the last period to help predict the due date. But one isn't pregnant in the first two weeks. So someone who is six weeks pregnant may have very little time after her period stops in order to get an abortion in states with a six-week limit.
Patients who may choose abortion are afraid at this stage, after reading in forums or looking at pictures on the internet. People expect to see a small fetus with hands, i.e. a developed and miniature baby.