Fact
What happens during an abortion
What happens during an abortion depends on the method. With medication abortion, the medicines are taken in sequence and cramping and bleeding follow over hours, usually wherever the person chooses to be. With procedural abortion, a short procedure is carried out by a clinical team at a facility, with some form of pain relief, followed by a monitored recovery period.
This page describes what commonly happens during an abortion in general terms. It cannot tell you what your experience will be, and it does not replace what your clinician tells you.
Two paths, kept separate
The two methods are different enough that mixing them into one description is unhelpful. This page keeps them apart.
The medication path
Taking the medicines. Two medicines are taken in sequence, with an interval that the prescribing clinician specifies. The Medication Guide supplied with the prescription states the instructions that apply. This site does not restate doses or timings.
What follows. Cramping usually begins some time after the second medicine and often comes in waves. Bleeding follows, usually heavier than a period and often with clots. For many people the most intense part is within a few hours, but this varies, and some people find it takes longer.
Other effects. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, chills, headache, or a mild temperature can occur. These are described in the Medication Guide.
Where people are. Most of this happens outside a clinic. Practical things worth having ready: pain medicine as advised by the clinician, sanitary pads, a heat source such as a hot water bottle if that helps, food and fluids, and the clinic's contact number written down somewhere you can find it easily.
Who is present. That is the person's choice. Some prefer company, some prefer privacy.
The procedural path
Arrival and preparation. Registration, consent, and confirming the pregnancy duration if that has not already been done. Depending on the procedure, the cervix may have been prepared in advance.
Comfort. Local anaesthetic, oral medicines, sedation, or general anaesthesia, depending on the facility, the procedure, and health history.
The procedure. Carried out by trained clinicians. Usually short. What a person feels depends heavily on what has been used for comfort.
Recovery at the facility. A monitored period afterwards. Then discharge with instructions and contact details.
Who is present. A clinical team. Whether a companion can be in the room varies by facility, so it is worth asking in advance.
Timing, honestly
The procedure or the medicines are only part of the time involved. Assessment, waiting, preparation, monitoring, travel, and any second appointment all add to it. Ask the facility how long to plan for, and plan a margin beyond that.
Comfort and pain
Pain is not the same for everyone, and it is not a measure of anything. Some people describe strong cramping. Some describe pressure or discomfort. Some describe very little. Previous experience of periods, of childbirth, or of other procedures does not reliably predict it.
What does make a difference is what is available for comfort, and asking about that in advance is reasonable and normal.
Support during the process
If someone is with you, useful things they can do are practical: transport, a phone charger, water, food afterwards, and following your lead about conversation. Useful things they can avoid are commentary on the decision and assumptions about how you should feel.
Why this page does not promise an experience
Descriptions of what "it feels like" are common online, usually written from one person's memory. A single account is not a forecast, and reading one can set an expectation that then does not match. This page describes what each method involves rather than what it feels like, because the second varies too much to state responsibly.
If something during the process worries you, contact the service that is looking after you. If you may be having a medical emergency, the urgent help page sets out what to do.