[Jim from C-Town]

A D&C is Dilation and curettage A D&E is Dilation and Evacuation. They are performed in the event of an ectopic pregnancy, like the tubal pregnancy your mother had, or in the event of a spontaneous abortion (Natural death in utero).

It is also the primary method of direct abortion after a certain number of weeks. Prior to 8 weeks or a little longer most abortions are D & E Dilation and extraction by vacuum. They basically remove the baby by turning a high powered vacuum on the child and decimating them as they are sucked up and out.

D&C is often used later in term as it uses an instrument that is a long piece of metal with a round hole at the end used to scrape material out of the uterus. In abortions the thing being scraped is a live baby.

[riri]

Thanks for the clarification.