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Studies of abortion-associated maternal morbidity have yielded inconsistent findings. To provide better characterization of such complications, researchers conducted a retrospective study of 54,911 induced abortions in California.
In all, 126 major complications occurred for an overall rate of 0.23%. By procedure, rates of major complications were 0.31% for medication abortion, 0.16% for first-trimester surgical abortion, and 0.41% for second-trimester surgical abortion. Among all major complications, the most common events were hemorrhage (31%), infection (28%), incomplete abortion (23%), unknown or other complication (13%), failed abortion (3%), and uterine perforation (2%). Uterine perforation occurred more commonly with surgical than med…