You didn’t plan to be pregnant. And now you feel like you’re facing the most daunting decisions you have ever had to cope with. At Willowbrook Women’s Center, we understand the feelings of shock and disbelief when you’re looking at your positive home pregnancy test, and you weren’t expecting to be pregnant. Your thoughts are overwhelmed with questions like “What do I do next?” and “What are my options?” You need answers to your questions, and we are here to help you take one step at a time towards an informed and confident decision about your unexpected pregnancy.

Make a Pre-Abortion Screening Appointment

Your first step to exploring your options is to make a pre-abortion screening appointment at our licensed medical clinic to confirm you’re pregnant and get the critical information you need to make the right decision for you and your future. We have a new Missouri location if you live in Cameron, Hamilton, Maysville, Gallatin, or any of the surrounding communities.

You’re probably wondering what happens at a pre-abortion screening appointment. At your appointment, you will meet with compassionate advocates and licensed medical professionals.

Your no-cost appointment will last about an hour and includes:

• Lab-grade pregnancy test to confirm your pregnancy

• Pre-abortion ultrasound: If your pregnancy test is positive, we provide you a no-cost limited ultrasound. An ultrasound confirms your pregnancy is viable, so you don’t have an abortion you don’t need. About 1 in 3 pregnancies do not carry to term, and 80 percent of miscarriages happen in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. An ultrasound also determines the location of your pregnancy; a pregnancy implanted outside of your uterus would need medical attention.

• Pre-abortion sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing: With a positive pregnancy test, our licensed medical personnel also provides no-cost STD testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea. STD testing is important whether you choose abortion or to continue your pregnancy.

We offer STD testing to protect you from infection and future complications. If you have an abortion with an untreated STD, you can be at risk for developing pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID can lead to chronic pain and infertility in the future.

• Information about abortion and procedures available: It’s important to us that you have reliable and accurate facts, so acritical component in the pre-abortion screening appointment is sharing information about abortion and the different procedures available at different stages of pregnancy. We’ll answer all your questions about medical abortion (also known as RU486 or the abortion pill) and surgical abortion.

• Information about other options available: We’ll also help you explore other options available to you if you choose to continue your pregnancy. We’ll provide information and resources you need about parenting or various forms of adoption.  

• A safe place to explore your options without pressure: One of the many benefits to a no-cost women’s center is that we don’t financially benefit from your decision in any way. Our only agenda is to empower you with accurate information so you can make a confident decision. We are a safe place, which means you will always be respected here, and you will never be pressured or judged about your choices.  

What Options Do You Have For Your Pregnancy?

Even if you’ve already determined that one pregnancy option is the best choice for you, it’s crucial to explore all aspects of each option as thoroughly as you can. It will empower you and allow you the opportunity in the future to look back on this difficult time and know you made the best decision with all the needed information.

You have options for your pregnancy: abortion or continue your pregnancy. If you choose to continue your pregnancy, you then have time to decide between parenting or adoption.

1. Abortion

Abortion is the process of ending your pregnancy. Our trained medical staff will give you information appropriate for your stage of pregnancy since different procedures are available for different stages of pregnancy. We’ll also provide resources that will help you ask yourself clarifying questions so you can decide if abortion is the right choice for you.

There are medical abortions and surgical abortions.

• Medical Abortion

A medical abortion (sometimes called the abortion pill or RU-486) is an option if the gestational age of the pregnancy is 10 weeks or less and if your pregnancy is confirmed to be viable; both of these criteria can only be confirmed by ultrasound.

You take the first medication (mifepristone) at a clinic. You take the second medication (misoprostol) at home 6-48 hours later, depending on the clinic instructions. Typically, you will start cramping and bleeding about 1-4 hours after taking the second pill, and the abortion is often completed within about 5 hours. Afterward, you’ll want to rest, and the cramping and bleeding will lessen. If the medical abortion fails, a surgical abortion will be required.

• Surgical Abortion

If the gestational age is shown to be greater than 10 weeks, you will need a surgical abortion performed at a clinic. Aspiration (vacuum) abortion and dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion methods are used depending on how far along you are in your pregnancy.

2. Continue your pregnancy

For various reasons, some women feel abortion is not an option for them, but they aren’t sure if they are ready to parent a child. If this resonates with you, discuss it with one of our advocates, and they can help you look at the benefits of parenting and adoption. If you choose to become a  parent, we can provide you with community resources, or read about what to expect at a pregnancy screening appointment which is designed to help women in situations just like yours to reach their goal to parent successfully.

Sometimes, women want to continue their pregnancies, but don’t feel ready to become parents yet. We hear women say, “I could never give a child up for adoption,” but after they discover the benefits of open adoption, they change their minds.

There’s no doubt about it; deciding about an unexpected pregnancy is really tough, but we at Willowbrook Women’s Center are here to provide critical information and guide you through breaking it down into one step at a time. If you live in or near Cameron, Missouri, make your pre-abortion screening appointment at our newest location, or you can call 816-244-7824.