Medical abortions accounted for 32% of first trimester abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics in the United States in 2008.

Ethacridine is also used as an agent for second trimester abortion.

It is a therapeutic gynecological procedure as well as a rarely used method of first trimester abortion.

Roe permits third trimester abortions, and thousands have been performed since 1973 by its authority.

In the case that a woman wishes to begin using the contraceptive patch following a first trimester abortion or miscarriage, patch application can be done immediately afterwards.

Also remaining open is the Pensacola Ladies' Center, which performs only first trimester abortions.

"The term 'partial-birth abortion,"' she wrote, "is neither recognized in the medical literature nor used by physicians who routinely perform second trimester abortions."

Under the law at the time abortion clinics could perform first trimester abortions, while second and third trimester abortions were performed in hospitals.

It hails Mr. Bush for signing and defending the "Partial Birth Abortion Act" - a ban on a type of second and third trimester abortions.