According to medicine, abortion is the natural or induced removal of an embryo or fetus during its non-viable period intrauterine life, i.e. when it has no possibility to survive. 
 

Types of Abortion 

Abortion can be spontaneous or induced. The spontaneous type occurs when death takes place inside the uterus or when different causes motivate the expulsion of the new being, and the fetus dies given its lack of capacity to survive outside its mother's womb.  Abortion is induced when the fetus is killed inside the woman's uterus or when its expulsion is artificially forced to the outside. 
 

Is the embryo/fetus already a human being in its first development stages? 
 

From the moment that gestation takes place, the union between sperm and ovum, a human being is created, different from any other human being that has ever existed, is presently existing or will exist. 

From that moment on an essentially new and different vital process begins which already has a hope for a full life. From that first instant, the new being's life deserves respect and protection, because human development is a continuous process in which there are no qualitative changes, but a progressive realization of an individual destiny. 
 

When exactly do the fetus’ different organs and functions develop? 

After the second week of development, the nervous system starts to function. At three weeks, the brain starts to appear, outlines of the legs and the arms appear, and the heart begins its first beats. At four weeks the eyes are formed. After six weeks the head already has its definitive form, the brain is well developed, hands and feet begin to be formed, and very soon fingerprints will appear. At eight weeks, the stomach and gastric secretions begin to function and fingernails appear. After nine weeks there is a perfect operation of the nervous system: it reacts to stimuli and detects flavors. At eleven weeks, he/she sucks his/her finger and the baby can be seen perfectly in a scan. Most of the organs are totally formed at the end of twelfth week, and almost all of them will already be working during the second week of intra-uterine life. 
 

Psychological consequences of abortion 

There are numerous psychopathological difficulties in evaluating abortions; these can be due to: 

• Statistical results of abortions are difficult to obtain.
• Systematic medical post-abortion tests are not available .
• Women who have had an abortion cease to visit the doctor that induced them to do it. 

Post-abortion Syndrome 
 

• Anxiety and sadness.
• The traumatic moment of abortion is continuously and deeply revived. 
• Profound depression with a guilt feeling.