CONCLUSIONS: Previous pregnancies negatively affect the success of medical termination of pregnancy, especially in women with a previous term pregnancy. This information is important when counseling women about the method of pregnancy termination.
How do the numbers compare? Consider the percentage of women who had to go back and get a curettage:
Group A (no previous pregnancy): 8.2%
Group B (at least one previous pregnancy): 18.9%
That's almost twice as many.
In Group B, when you exclude those women who had had an abortion, the number goes up to 22.4%
So one in five had to go back to get a curettage.
You might need to know this, as some women choose medical abortion on the basis that it's like a miscarriage. And having been pregnant, they are more comfortable with the idea of having a miscarriage-- a seemingly natural process-- than having a surgical procedure.
This might also be important to know because some of these women will see their unborn children expelled from their bodies. Having had a pregnancy and seen what a fetus looks like, they might feel more grief over their decision.
