Abortion FAQs

Which method is best for me?

Depending on the gestation of your pregnancy, you may have the option of choosing either a surgical abortion or a medication abortion.

A surgical abortion is a simple surgical procedure to remove the pregnancy tissue from the uterus using gentle suction. For pregnancies under 16 weeks, this is generally done in one clinic visit lasting three to four hours including recovery time. As it is a surgical procedure, it also involves anaesthetic. Abortion is one of the safest and most common types of surgery in Australia and is 98-99% effective, so a small number of women may require a second procedure if the first results in an incomplete abortion.

A medication abortion involves a miscarriage induced by medication. It can involve multiple visits to a GP or clinic, and the miscarriage generally takes place at home over a 24 hour period. It doesn’t involve an anaesthetic but most women will experience symptoms like cramping and nausea as part of the process. It is only available under 9 weeks gestation. It is successful in 93-98% of cases, so you will have to be prepared to have a surgical abortion procedure if the medication abortion does not result in a complete miscarriage.

For more detailed information on what each of these procedures may involve, please see our surgical abortion and medication abortion procedure information.

Considerations

Your decision will depend on a number of factors, including your personal preference. Some other factors women take into consideration are:

Location: Depending on where you live, you may have difficulty finding a service which provides your preferred option. Providers of medication and surgical abortion around Queensland are listed here. Access to either option can be much more difficult if you are in a rural, regional or remote community, although medication abortion via telehealth may be an option for women who live within an hour of a hospital.

Gestation: Surgical abortion is available from around 6 weeks gestation to up to 19 weeks, although there are only two providers in Queensland who will offer procedures in the 19th week. The upper gestational limit differs according to which provider you are seeing; some only offer to 14 weeks gestation. Medication abortion is only available at under 9 weeks gestation.

Cost: Pregnancy termination is not routinely offered through public hospitals in Queensland, and the vast majority of abortions are performed by private clinics and a small number of GPs. Almost all these services have out of pocket costs attached, and most will have to be paid up front. A medication abortion by a GP will generally cost between $250 and $580, while a medication or surgical abortion by a clinic will cost approximately $400 at minimum. Prices for surgical abortion procedures increase sharply each week after around 11 weeks gestation.

Physical and emotional health: Risk of complication after an abortion is similar for both medication and surgical methods. It is important to follow aftercare instructions provided by the doctor. There may be medical factors which make one option preferrable over the other, or make one option unavailable to you – for example, mifepristone (the drug used in medication abortion) is not recommended for women with high blood pressure or who are taking blood-thinning medication . There may be other reasons why you would prefer one option over the other – like a fear of needles, or a low pain threshold. These are all factors you should discuss with your GP or provider.

Generally speaking, if you:

• feel comfortable with the idea of having a miscarriage at home;
• live near to a service that provides medication abortion or are eligible for a telehealth medication abortion;
• would like to avoid a surgical operation;
• don’t mind more than one appointment; and
• are fewer than nine weeks pregnant

then medication abortion may be suitable for you.

If you:

• prefer to complete the abortion in a single visit;
• prefer not to be conscious for the procedure;
• can access a service which provides a surgical abortion; and
• feel comfortable with having a surgical procedure and anaesthetic

then surgical abortion may be suitable for you.

References

1. See for example Abortion procedures – surgical: a factsheet by Better Health Channel, a website managed and authorised by the Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria.

2. Termination of pregnancy: a resource for health professionals by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), 2005; Melbourne, Victoria.

3. Philip Goldstone, Jill Michelson and Eve Williamson ‘Early medical abortion using low-dose mifepristone followed by buccal misoprostol: a large Australian observational study’ Medical Journal of Australia 2012; 197 (5): 282-286.

4. Abortion procedures – medical: factsheet by Better Health Channel, Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria.

How much will an abortion cost?

These prices are approximate figures for Queensland providers only and may change at any time. For exact prices contact the providers or Children by Choice. Interstate prices vary significantly, so please call your closest clinic for up-to-date costs.

Abortions in Queensland are provided by some hospitals, private day surgeries and GPs. The cost of a termination will depend on whether you are accessing services publicly or privately, accessing a medication abortion or a surgical abortion, on your location, and on the gestation of the pregnancy.

Medication abortion is available to nine weeks gestation. After this point, surgical abortion is your only option. Prices for surgical abortion start to rise at most private clinics once the pregnancy reaches 11 or 12 weeks gestation, with steep increases from 14 weeks onwards. For this reason it’s vital to recognise that abortion is a time-sensitive decision. Public services will provide termination of pregnancy services free of charge in some locations, call us to find out if you’re local service is providing.

Medication Abortion

Mifepristone (or RU486) is listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. It is available through abortion clinics (of which there are ten around the state), and a number of GPs. It is only available for use in pregnancies less than nine weeks gestation.
GP:
GPs are able to prescribe the drug if they undergo an online training course and find a pharmacist willing to stock a supply of the medication, but it is unknown how many are doing so as there is no publicly available register of GPs providing mifepristone. Some GP providers are listed on our Queensland providers page.

Medication abortion through a GP may be free if they are bulk billing or have a partnership with the local hospital. If this is not the case the approximate costs is $350-$580 upfront. Women may then be eligible for a partial Medicare rebate for the consultations. The cost of the medication itself is extra to this (between $12 and $50 depending on whether you have a Health Care Card).

Known GP providers are located around greater Brisbane, as well as in Bundaberg, Cairns, Mackay, Townsville, the Gold Coast, and Sunshine Coast hinterland.
BRISBANE, GOLD COAST AND SUNSHINE COAST CLINICS:
At abortion clinics in Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, costs are between $400 and $600 for Medicare card holders. There may be a $60-$90 rebate to claim through Medicare depending on the clinic.
ROCKHAMPTON AND TOWNSVILLE CLINICS:
Clinics in Rockhampton and Townsville charge $790 upfront with a $60-$90 rebate available for Medicare card holders.
CAIRNS:
Medication abortion is available through the public system at Cairns Sexual Health Clinic for pregnancies less than nine weeks gestation, at a cost of under $40 for Medicare Card holders and less for Health Care Card holders. Clients must be over 16 and live within one hour of a hospital.
TELEHEALTH:
Some providers offer medication abortion via telehealth. Additional criteria may need to be met in order to ensure that this can be provided to you safely including things like secure access to Skype. The costs varying between $275- $676 depending on the provider.

Details of all providers are listed on our Queensland abortion providers page.

Surgical Abortion

Surgical abortion can be performed at public hospitals across the state, call us to find out if you have a local public provider.

This service is also provided through ten private clinics around Queensland, seven of these are in Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts.  Two are in Rockhampton and Townsville, with one clinic in Cairns.
BRISBANE, GOLD COAST AND SUNSHINE COAST CLINICS:

• Up to 11-12 weeks: $350 – $580
• 12 to 13 weeks: $500 – $850
• 14 to 15 weeks: $650 – $1410
• 16 to 19 weeks: $1500 – $3065*

ROCKHAMPTON, TOWNSVILLE AND CAIRNS CLINICS:

• Up to 11-12 weeks: $715 – $775
• 12 to 13 weeks: $825 – $890
• 14 to 16 weeks: $1100 – $1500

DETAILS OF ALL PRIVATE PROVIDERS ARE LISTED ON OUR QUEENSLAND ABORTION PROVIDERS PAGE.
These prices are for Medicare Card holders only, as they include the Medicare rebate. Prices for non-Medicare Card holders will be much higher – often around double the Medicare Card holder cost.

Concessions are available for Health Care Card holders and Pension Card holders at some clinics.

Other concessions may be possible at some clinics for various circumstances. Contact us at Children by Choice for more information.

*Only a small number of clinics (all in southeast Queensland) provide termination of pregnancy at or after 16 weeks gestation at the doctor’s discretion and prices will be higher. Only one clinic (at Southport) offers procedures at 18-19 weeks gestation.

How will I feel after an abortion?

How a woman might feel after an abortion is related to many things, including the level of support she had from family or friends and whether she felt she had made the decision for herself or not.

Women who do have support, who have been able to talk through their decision with someone they trust, and who have made the decision to terminate themselves mostly deal well with an abortion. The most reported emotion after an abortion is one of relief.

However, whilst many women will experience a sense of relief after their abortion, others may experience mixed feelings, and some may feel relief mixed with other emotions. Some women may have more difficulties coping with their abortion. Difficulties in coping seem to be triggered by a number of factors, including factors that are not directly involved with having an abortion.

Those who experience negativity after an abortion are more likely to be those women who have felt they needed to keep the abortion a secret or those who felt they acted against their own values or beliefs by having an abortion. Women who terminate a wanted pregnancy because of a maternal or fetal health complication may also struggle more with this decision.

In other words, the experience of abortion depends on more than just a woman’s feelings, thoughts and personality. It is her ability to access resources when needed. It is her life situation and life history. It is her relationships with significant others in her life. It is her treatment from doctors, teachers, workmates, employers and health workers. It is cultural expectations, society’s expectations and beliefs, and the relevant laws, policies and practices.

A woman’s or pregnant persons emotions immediately after an abortion can be made stronger by the chemical and hormonal aspects of the procedure. This includes stress hormones leading up to the procedure, and the chemicals involved in some anaesthetic drugs. These break down quickly in the body, but the hormone levels associated with the pregnancy are slower. Whilst the majority of the pregnancy hormones will go when the pregnancy is ended, the remaining hormones can take three or more weeks to leave the body. With pregnancy hormones being at their greatest levels between 9 and 13 weeks gestation, this hormonal shift can be significant. Allow yourself two or three weeks for these emotions to subside.

How a woman might feel after an abortion is related to many things, including the level of support she had from family or friends and whether she felt she had made the decision for herself or not.

Women and pregnant people who do have support, who have been able to talk through their decision with someone they trust, and who have made the decision to terminate themselves mostly deal well with an abortion. The most reported emotion after an abortion is one of relief.

However, whilst many women and pregnant people will experience a sense of relief after their abortion, others may experience mixed feelings, and some may feel relief mixed with other emotions. Some women may have more difficulties coping with their abortion. Difficulties in coping seem to be triggered by a number of factors, including factors that are not directly involved with having an abortion.

Those who experience negativity after an abortion are more likely to be those women and pregnant people who have felt they needed to keep the abortion a secret or those who felt they acted against their own values or beliefs by having an abortion. Women who terminate a wanted pregnancy because of a maternal or fetal health complication may also struggle more with this decision.

In other words, the experience of abortion depends on more than just a woman’s and pregnant peoples feelings, thoughts and personality. It is her ability to access resources when needed. It is her life situation and life history. It is her relationships with significant others in her life. It is her treatment from doctors, teachers, workmates, employers and health workers. It is cultural expectations, society’s expectations and beliefs, and the relevant laws, policies and practices.

A woman’s or pregnant persons emotions immediately after an abortion can be made stronger by the chemical and hormonal aspects of the procedure. This includes stress hormones leading up to the procedure, and the chemicals involved in some anaesthetic drugs. These break down quickly in the body, but the hormone levels associated with the pregnancy are slower. Whilst the majority of the pregnancy hormones will go when the pregnancy is ended, the remaining hormones can take three or more weeks to leave the body. With pregnancy hormones being at their greatest levels between 9 and 13 weeks gestation, this hormonal shift can be significant. Allow yourself two or three weeks for these emotions to subside.

If you or someone you know is having trouble after an abortion, it could help to talk to someone. You may also like to read through our support section which looks at some reasons why some women may experience difficulty coping after an abortion, and provides some strategies that may be useful for women who are having trouble coping with their decision to terminate a pregnancy.

How safe is abortion?

In Australia, where abortions are performed by highly qualified health care professionals in very hygenic conditions, a pregnancy termination is one of the safest medical procedures and complications are rare.

Anti-choice counselling services and lobby groups sometimes run scare campaigns on the supposed ‘risks’ of abortion in an attempt to scare women out of having a termination. This can be an extremely distressing experience. If you’ve spoken to one of these services and need some support our counsellors can talk through this with you on our toll-free line.

These campaigns distort research and often make false claims about abortion. The three most often used in misinformation campaigns are that an abortion will affect a woman’s future fertility, that it causes breast cancer and that there are long-lasting psychological impacts of abortion.

No link to infertility

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, or RANZCOG, states that serious complications after abortions are rare and that mortality and serious morbidity occur less commonly with abortions than with pregnancies carried to term .

This suggests continuing with the pregnancy holds more risks than having an abortion. While minor surgery or the administration of medication does carry some risks neither surgical and medication abortion should have any adverse effect on future fertility.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK identifies that there are no proven associations between induced abortion and subsequent ectopic pregnancy, placenta praevia or infertility, a view supported by RANZCOG, who state that:

“Women who have an uncomplicated termination are not at an increased risk of being infertile in the future.”

No link to breast cancer

Around the world reproductive health and anti-cancer organisations have rejected any association between abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer. This rejection is based on reliable scientific investigation, documented in reputable medical publications, and has been endorsed by the World Health Organisation.

One study published in the Lancet medical journal in 2004 was an analysis of 53 studies, involving 83,000 women with breast cancer from 16 countries, which found that “pregnancies that end as a spontaneous or induced abortion do not increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer”.

The National Cancer Institute in the United States examined in great detail the research on abortion and breast cancer in 2003, finding that:

“having an abortion or miscarriage does not increase a woman’s subsequent risk of developing breast cancer”.

The Australian Cancer Council does not recognise induced or spontaneous abortion as a risk for breast cancer, nor does the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre.

No link to long-term mental health problems

The American Psychological Association’s Taskforce on Mental Health and Abortion reviewed 20 years of research and studies into the psychological effects of abortion and released its final report in 2008. It found no difference in the psychological effect of terminating an unplanned pregnancy and carrying that pregnancy to term.

Reviews of studies into the issue have found that the legal and voluntary termination of a pregnancy rarely causes immediate or long-lasting negative psychological consequences in healthy women [9], and that greater partner or parental support improves the psychological outcomes for women.

Some studies have reported positive outcomes such as feelings of relief for women.

In 2005, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) reviewed the evidence on the psychological impact of abortion and concluded that:

“Psychological studies suggest that there is mainly improvement in psychological wellbeing in the short term after termination of pregnancy [and that] there are rarely immediate or lasting negative consequences”.

Risk factors for adverse psychological effects are consistently identified as:

• Perceptions of stigma, need for secrecy and low or anticipated social support for the abortion decision;
• A prior history of mental health problems; and
• Ambivalence about the decision, or a belief that an abortion is in conflict with her personal values.

References

1. Safe Abortion: Technical and Policy Guidance for Health Systems World Health Organisation (2nd ed.), Geneva 2012 p21. Available online at http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/unsafe_abortion/9789241548434/en/

2. See for example the Submission re Health (Abortion Law Reform) Amendment Bill 2016 at https://www.cherishlife.org.au/resources/submissions/health-abortion-law-reform-amendment-bill-2016

3. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Termination of Pregnancy: A resource for health professionals November 2005. Available online at http://www.ranzcog.edu.au/editions/doc_view/480-termination-of-pregnancy-a-resource-for-health-professionals.html

4. World Health Organisation Induced abortion does not increase the risk of breast cancer Fact Sheet 240, June 2000. Reproduced on the Australian Women’s Health Network website at http://awhn.org.au/policy-statements-and-fact-sheets/.

5. V Beral, D Bull, R Doll, R Peto, G Reeves “Breast cancer and abortion: collaborative reanalysis of data from 53 epidemiological studies, including 83,000 women with breast cancer from 16 countries” Lancet 2004; 363: 1007-16.

6. National Cancer Institute Fact Sheet Abortion, Miscarriage and Breast Cancer Risk. Available online at http://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/abortion-miscarriage-risk.

7. Cancer Council Australia Fact Sheet Breast cancer. Available online at http://www.cancer.org.au/aboutcancer/cancertypes/breastcancer.htm.

8. National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre. Breast cancer risk factors: a review of the evidence. National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre, Surry Hills, NSW, 2009. Available online at http://canceraustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/breast-cancer-risk-factors-review-evidence/pdf/rfrw-breast-cancer-risk-factors-a-review-of-the-evidence_1.15.pdf

9. American Psychological Association, Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion. Report of the Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion. Washington, 2008. Available online at http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/mental-health-abortion-report.pdf.

10. The Women’s (Royal Women’s Hospital Melbourne), Information for men supporting their partner after an abortion: Fact sheet. Available online at https://thewomens.r.worldssl.net/images/uploads/fact-sheets/info-men-after-abortion-Mar2018.pdf

11. C Rocca, K Kimport, H Gould, DG Foster “Women’s emotions one week after receiving or being denied an abortion in the United States” Perspectives of Sexual and Reproductive Health, Vol 45 No 3, September 2013. Online at http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/4512213.html.

What if I can't access an abortion?

We regularly talk to women who are having trouble accessing an abortion service. You might live too far away from an abortion provider, or not be able to afford the upfront cost of a procedure, or be a young person who can’t or doesn’t want to involve your parents.

If you are having problems accessing abortion, please contact us so we can help you.

Do not attempt to induce a miscarriage yourself.

We are sometimes contacted by people concerned about the risk to themselves or someone they know of self-abortion. There are many myths about how to induce a miscarriage but none of these methods are safe for women and may be life-threatening to you if you attempt them.

Despite the warnings on consuming alcohol or illicit drugs during pregnancy, this may not make you miscarry – however, it can make you very ill, and taking large quantities can put your life at risk. Alcohol and drugs can also have a wide range of impacts if you later decide to continue your pregnancy, including premature labour, developmental problems, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, birth defects, heart problems, and other serious health issues.

Similar risks exist with medication, including supposed ‘abortion pills’ bought online. You should only ever use abortion medication that has been provided to you by a medical professional. Online drug purchases are not subject to the same regulations as store-bought medication, and may therefore not be what you think you’re purchasing. Women On Waves, an online service providing information and legitimate abortion medication to women in countries where abortion is illegal (they do not provide services for Australian women), warns of some websites offering fake medication or even injections, or taking payment for medication that is never shipped. Never order abortion pills online. You don’t know if what you’re taking is legitimate, and it could be incredibly dangerous.

We understand that this situation can be very scary, but there might be something we can do to help you overcome the barriers to a safely provided abortion procedure by a qualified medical professional.

If you are having trouble accessing a procedure, please contact us.

For more information about the effects of alcohol and drugs in pregnancy, visit:

• Information for women about pregnancy & alcohol from the Australian Government Department of Health;
• Tobacco, Alcohol, Drugs, and Pregnancy by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists;
• Alcohol and pregnancy insights from the Australian Drug Foundation.