11. They want people to understand what actually happens during an abortion. (Some readers may find these details graphic.)

"The abortion is usually the fastest part of the whole appointment. If it's early enough in gestation, we can do medical abortion — it's a two-step pill process. First you take mifepristone, then 24 hours later you take misoprostol — these expel the pregnancy from the uterus and you bleed like you do in a miscarriage.

"First-trimester surgical abortions only take about 2 to 7 minutes and second-trimester abortions take around 10 to 15 minutes. We lightly sedate the patient and insert a speculum, then we numb the cervix with a shot of lidocaine before we dilate it a few millimeters using a tapered metal rod. Then we place a small tube that's thinner than a drinking straw through the opening in the cervix, and it's attached to a suction machine so it draws the uterine lining and pregnancy into the tube and out of the body.

"If it's a second-trimester pregnancy, we dilate the cervix a few centimeters so sometimes we might need to put synthetic dilators in the day before to help the cervix soften overnight. We typically give the patient more anesthesia and we usually have to use forceps in addition to suction to remove the fetus from the uterus. I think it's important to explain the procedure very clearly, because demystifying what happens can dispel many of the myths and false information."

—Dr. Deborah Oyer, family physician, medical director of Cedar River Clinics, Seattle, Washington