Safe, legal abortion performed by qualified practitioners is not linked with any risks to future pregnancy, including both surgical and medical abortion. There is little to no evidence of any impact on a woman’s ability to conceive and carry a pregnancy to term based upon her therapeutic abortion history. The inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term is based on many factors (e.g., sexually transmitted infections, genetics, environmental and social factors, etc.).

Women who have not had an abortion experience subsequent miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or placenta previa at rates similar to women who have had an abortion. Overall findings from many studies do not support a causal association between induced abortion and ectopic pregnancy. The risk of placenta previa (where the placenta partially or totally covers the cervix, often leading to severe bleeding during pregnancy and delivery) increases with the number of previous deliveries, as well as from uterine scarring from previous surgeries, including caesarean sections and complications from unsafe abortion or D&C treatment for miscarriage.

Long-term risks of one abortion in regards to second-trimester miscarriage, premature birth, low birthweight, and infertility were comprehensively reviewed in 1982 and updated in 1990. These reviews formed the basis for American Surgeon General Everett Koop’s conclusion that “the physical sequelae of abortion were no different than those found in women who carried pregnancy to term or who had never been pregnant.”

Options for Sexual Health, Common Abortion Myths and Facts

New England Journal of Medicine, Medical Abortion and the Risk of Subsequent Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes (2007)