
The following images show some of the surgical instruments used to perform abortions today. (Used with kind permission of The Grantham Collection).
Visit The Grantham Collection to see some of the instruments used in previous times.

Uterine Currette (picture: The Grantham Collection – all rights reserved)
One side of the loop is sharp for cutting the child apart. The other side scrapes the uterus to remove the placenta.

Forceps (picture: The Grantham Collection – all rights reserved)
This abortion tool is used to crush, grasp, and pull the child’s body apart.
Embryotomy Scissors (picture: The Grantham Collection – all rights reserved)
This instrument is used to cut off the head, arms and legs.
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October 15th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
These instruments make me feel sick. Our first child is due in a few weeks time and I can’t imagine how some could use these on a baby!
October 20th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
How sick.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
This is disgusting
October 24th, 2008 at 10:16 am
This is so sick, Ducky was born at 22 weeks and lived, so how could someone do this to a living being?
October 29th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I pray that there will be an end to abortions.
I never knew just how terrible, barbaric and inhumane abortions were. We are lead to believe it is just a “procedure”. To suck out a baby, crush it and drain it into the garbage is the worst thing somebody could do, in my opinion. If something has a heartbeat, it has a life, it has a right to live.
I didn’t know about the partitive body abortion procedure until today (while researching pro-life videos on Youtube). It can be done at any time during pregnancy and is graphic, murderous and sick.
Abortion is murder. Choose life.
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:29 pm
i know this forum is very bias at the moment, but i hope you take into consideration other factors that may be involved. i dont think its fair to ridicule someone for there choice, even if you may feel that the operations are cruel or it is against a religious belief, you wont truly know what its like until its been done to you(say you were sexually abused by someone but still happily married with your partner and attempting to have a baby) the choice of abortion becomes heavily considerable. Besides I believe that a doctor who performs abortions and lives a good life has a better chance of getting into whatever afterlife that may be there after us than a man who kills abortion doctors for his beliefs.
November 4th, 2008 at 8:32 am
Dear A helping Hand.
We are happy to publish and respond to your comments. This website is not biased – on this page we show the instruments that are used to destroy the child. The truth is that the proabortion websites like bpas and Marie Stopes are biased because they do not tell women the truth about abortion. Anyone who believes in women’s rights should support the right of women to be told all the facts about abortion.
We do not ridicule women who choose abortion. We want women to have the right to know the truth and the right to support to help them continue with pregnancy.
You say that other factors may be involved. Why can’t those other factors be dealt with without abortion?
We do not condone violence. We advocate peaceful opposition to abortion. In a democratic society, we should be free to debate abortion and politicians should protect the lives of unborn babies. It is absolutely indefensible to destroy human life. Our abortion laws are out of date and inhumane.
November 8th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
You say this site is not biased, yet you fail to mention for what type of abortion those instruments are used for. Most abortions do not require them.
There is,and never has been,any such thing as partial birth abortion. Most take the form of a medical abortion.
“We do not ridicule women who choose abortion”
You do, by assuming they unaware of the full implications of abortion.
“We want women to have the right to know the truth and the right to support to help them continue with pregnancy.”
Are you going to raise the baby for them?
“It is absolutely indefensible to destroy human life”
What if the woman’s life is in danger or she was raped? What if abortion was illegal? You would be condemning hundreds of women to possible death through backstreet abortions. I personally value the life of a sentient being to that of a fetus.
As horrible as I believe abortion to be, you fail to see that in some cases it is necessary. Nevertheless I applaud your peaceful pro-life stance. Violence never got anyone anywhere
November 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Bex, the cases you refer to are not representative of the 200,000 abortions a year. The very vast majority of abortions are carried out for social reasons, and are promoted by the proabortion organisations as simply a matter of choice.
If you think abortion as “horrible” than do you think that it should be a matter of choice?
If abortion is horrible, isn’t the appropriate response to ensure that every course of action is explored to enable women to continue with the pregnancy?
November 24th, 2008 at 9:21 am
I’m curious as to why you keep on using the term ‘destory’ if your website isn’t bias. Surely a more appropriate term would be killing? I fail to see how using destory can not be bias in any way.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Hi,
I think it is really important to point out that regardless if you agree or disagree with abortion, the baby can’t tell us if he/she is in pain when the procedure is carried out. Nor does the baby have a choice if he or she lives or dies.
I am 8 weeks pregnant and horrified at women who assume it is their only choice.
I worked with a girl who was by herself, didn’t have any support from family and very little money. She had booked in for an abortion as she didn’t think she would be able to deal with things herself.
She now has a beautiful baby girl and says that she feels sick at the fact that she thought – in a state of panic that abortion was her only choice. Clearly there are lots of other options available.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Bex prolife may not raise the unborn children themselves, but the number of parents who cannot conceive that are willing to adopt would more than account for the 200,000 babies killed each year.
If someone is raped, it is not the babies fault.
December 18th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
This is disgusting, all those barbaric tools used against an innocent baby!
December 25th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Bex Re ““We do not ridicule women who choose abortion”
You do, by assuming they unaware of the full implications of abortion.” …Very few people are aware of the full implications of abortion. The most common mistake is the conclusion that it`s just a “clump of cells” that`s being removed. This could be addressed by encouraging the mother to either view a fetal development chart,or see her unborn baby on ultrasound,so that she would then be making a more informed decision. There are also the physical and emotional affects of abortion to be taken into consideration. After all,abortion does not ever undo a pregnancy..it just turns an expectant woman into the mother of a dead and mutilated baby. Therefore the negative outcomes that may arise can be both chronic and severe. Women and unborn children deserve FAR better!
January 16th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
As a woman I have no reaction to these instruments. A scalpel or dentist’s drill are far more fearsome, and yet – as we all know – they are employed in healing and saving lives.
All I notice is that the working part of each instrument is small; too small to be employed on a newborn. Too small to be used on a rat. They are used for scraping human cells out of a human body, and there is clearly no way that these instruments could harm a fully developed baby in their usual application.
I’m sure that a display of instruments used to extract tumours from cancer patients is equally if not more fearsome. I do not think this collection is a valid or coherent statement against abortion; it is simply a transparent attempt to use a fear of invasive procedures as an emotive device.
January 17th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Nik, thanks for your post – you make an interesting comparison with other surgical procedures – however, would you accept that your point “they are used for scraping human cells” is a misleading euphemism? If you look at just the facts of the baby’s development, it is clear that it is misleading to describe the body of the baby as “human cells” – it has human form – hands, legs, a head and a body.
In direct answer to your last point – our opposition to abortion has got absolutely nothing to do with opposing invasive procedures – it’s got to do with what abortion is – the dismemberment and killing of a baby before birth.
These pictures are not an attempt to scare – believe me, the pictures of aborted babies are far worse.
January 17th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
I would just like to state that I’m pro-life.
Does it really matter how the baby is taken out? It won’t feel pain. It really doesn’t matter how disgusting it looks, it’s just the fact that it’s happening.
January 18th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Matthew Re “It won’t feel pain.”
You need to try and be more specific here..as your claim on its own is misleading. Some studies suggest that unborn foetuses/babies can experience pain from very early in gestation.. i.e. from around 16 weeks..perhaps even earlier. Whilst some larger medical organisations such as the AMA prefer to claim that pain can`t be experienced before the cerebral cortex is well developed at around 24 weeks geatsation.. But this would appear to be completely disingenuous and is,as far as I am aware, unproven. Personally I think we should use caution here and that the upper time limit for abortion should,for this reason alone, be immediately reduced to 12 weeks (like most of Europe).. This would ensure that,whilst abortion remains legal,there is no possibility of the experience of pain.. Killing an unborn child is,in itself,indefensible,whilst the possibility of causing it immense pain as well only adds to the tragedy.
February 6th, 2009 at 8:55 am
thoese pictures…it just makes you press your legs together and squirm…it’s terrible to to think these barbaric instruments are being used against babies of all ages…abortion is a symptom of a sick society, it really is.
how can pro-choice groups claim to be standing for women’s rights if they sanction the use of these brutal tools to literally scrape her baby out of her womb?
Horrible.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:08 am
When I was a child I was raped and of course Pregnancy was a big fear and so my mother forced me to take the morning after pill… which I totally didn’t understand at that age and thought I was aborting a baby or something and it really upset me… so I will say for sure if anything like that happened again NO I would not abort… there are plenty of childless couples… If I couldn’t face bringing the child up I could give it to any of my sterile friends and family!!!
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:16 am
You wouldn’t see people putting up pictures of surgical instruments and scare mongering about everyday operations, this is just the same. Abortion will never be a ‘nice’ procedure but it is often necessary. I am 20 years old, in a middle of my degree and if I was to get pregnant then I would have an abortion in a heartbeat. And to me that choice is better for both me and whatever baby that collection of cells would develop into. Trying to scare people out of their legal choice is something you should feel ashamed of.
March 14th, 2009 at 6:17 am
I think all of you who don’t think that unborn children don’t feel pain, need to do some research. Also I am doing research for this subject now, and I must correct some figures. These instruments are in fact used in horrible, barbaric ways in all stages of pregnancy. The fact that you guys keep talking about rape or incest these type of abortions only account for 1% performed abortions. There are 1.3 million abortions performed a year and 115,000 performed a day worldwide. This is the 9/11 tragedy x30 or Katrina x62 (Guttmacher institute). The baby’s heart begins beating in 18 to 25 days, and brain waves have been recorded @ 40 days. At as early as 11 weeks a baby has fingertips and may only be about three inches long, but has every distinction of a human being. In the first trimester the abortionist uses a vacuum which rips the baby apart. After that the abortionist takes a instrument called uterine currette to scrape the uterus (D&C)and take out all of the fetal remains. A (D&E) abortion can happen up to 18 weeks of pregnancy and is very violent. They take the forceps and start ripping apart the baby and just ripping what they can get a hold of. They also use a salt poisoning (saline amniocentesis) injected into the mothers abdomen into the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. This can cause a serious burning to the skin and is eventually taken into the lungs and death follows and then evacuation. The third trimester abortion in fact does occur. It does occur less frequently, but it still happens. A partial birth abortion takes place when birth is induced and a hole is cut into the base of the skull and the brain is vacuumed out. This happens by pulling the legs out first and the head is still in the uterus. This is killing and it is wrong, and should be stopped. Everyone needs to look at the pictures and see for yourself. I am in college getting my R.N. and I had to do some research for a project. I never new it was this bad. Go to Abortin73.com, or prolife.com, or watch the silent scream on youtube.com they have pictures of what abortion really looks like. Please don’t hate just educate yourself and your friends. No matter what your stance these pictures will make you wonder what we are doing as a human race. To me this is completely different from any other surgical instrument. Other instruments may cause pain, but it is short lived and eventually heals and makes better. You may choose to have an abortion but that scar will stay with you forever. Anything is better than killing the innocent.
March 15th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I must say something else to Katie. I was 19 and a pre-med student when I found myself pregnant. I had my oldest daughter when I was 20. I put my education on hold for a while, but now I am back in school to finish up. If you want to stay in school that is very admirable. Use birth control, use an I.U.D. or the pill, or even the plan B pill which prevents fertilization from happening. You can even give the baby up for adoption. Katie you are right it is legal, but does it really make it right? I know people personally that have had abortions that are haunted by their dead babies. Don’t fool yourself they are not just clumps of cells they are living. If you are in college read a biology Anatomy and Physiology book and see what the definition of life is. Children are the most wonderful blessing if not for you maybe you could be a blessing for some one else and give your child to them. Also to all of you who use the medical excuse. I am also Type 1 diabetic and was the highest risk pregnancy you could get. I was asked if I wanted an abortion with all three of my daughters, because of the risk to me and my children. I said no and I am perfectly healthy with no long-term effects and I have 3 very beautiful, very healthy, thriving girls. Abortion is a choice and it isn’t the only choice there are other ways. Choose Life!!!!
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:05 am
Katie, maybe you should use that ‘heartbeat’ to consider the pill and condoms. Why women feel it is okay to use abortion as a secondary measure so that they can selfishly continue with their lifestyle unhindered is beyond me.
I had a baby whilst I was studying, I have now gone back to studying and I do not regret my decision. Contrary to popular belief babies do not end your life and it scares me that women falsely declare abortion as necessary for social reasons. Why is adoption such a bad option for these people?
April 25th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
This is evil. Abortion is evil. What has the human race come too. How pathetic and low can a person sink. Killing a defenseless baby. People should sort there heads out. A stupid women getting pregnant, is it the babies fault? A women getting raped even, is not her fault, but is it the babies fault?? NO. Why are people so evil.
April 30th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
In response to Greg’s comments – I think it is comments such as yours that frequently ‘lose’ the argument for the prolife lobby, as such comments come across as shortsighted and ignorant. People make mistakes and contraception is not 100% effective. Rather than condeming people who have abortions as “stupid”, “pathetic” and “evil”, it would be far better to strive towards lowering the rate of unwanted pregnancies in the first place. I think that is something on which people who are pro-life and those that are pro-choice certainly agree!
I would also like to point out for every “stupid” woman out there, there is undoubtedly also a “stupid” man too!
Regards,
A “stupid, pathetic, evil” woman.
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:17 am
Absolutely agree Caroline – the prolife movement doesn’t condemn women, and wants more help and support to help women continue with pregnancy.
The ProLife Alliance frequently receives calls from women who are distressed and need help and we never condemn any women but do what we can to help. There should be more widespread support and help.
Unfortunately the current NHS websites all point women directly to abortion organisations.
The pro-choice lobby does not provide help to continue with pregnancy. As the pro-choice lobby ideologically support abortion, they do not see any problem with the skyhigh rates of abortion we have in this country. Their only choice is abortion, and the only approach they use to reduce unwanted pregnancies is more contraception, which inevitably leads to more unwanted pregnancies.
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:31 am
Every has the right to life, therefore everyone should have the right of death.
Proverbs 31: 8 “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves”
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Sue: Pro-choicers do not only see abortion as the only way out. We support the choice, freedom, success, health, ambition, happiness and quality of life, which the young woman and, if she choose to keep it, the child, would certainly find if she makes her own choice and doesn’t have it forced upon her.
The pro-life view only cares about the baby while it’s in the womb, and are doing nothing to stop abortions happening. They are against ambition, most definitely, and quality of life. They do not care what happens to the child after it’s been born. They do not care if it’s being starved or has to sleep on the street at night because the mother doesn’t have enough money, or if it’s being abused by the father who would’ve otherwise made the mum have an abortion, or if the woman herself ends up aborting the kid by herself, or has it done in a disgusting environment riddled with disease where she’ll end up either injured or dead.
I REALLY do wish abortions weren’t needed. I wish they didn’t happen at all, I really do. I don’t see myself as pro-choice, because I definitely wouldn’t have an abortion myself or let another woman go through it, but I know that they will happen regardless and I’d rather the women be in a safe, clean environment when they do it.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I hate abortions! I think if you really dont want kids then use protection!! My brother and his wife can never have children and have spent Thousands on IVF with nothing to show for it. They would give everything for a baby and there is people out there having abortions all the time. I have 2 kids and would never have an abortion no matter what! My mother was forsed to have a back street abortion by her mum when she was 23 weeks gone. Thats 40 years ago now it was pulled from her with his heart still beating but missing limbs and shoved in2 a bucket my mother has never forgot that little boy he would have been my brother! So just think before you act!
May 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pm
This is to all the above, i find it difficult to understand how GREG can have such strong bias views, when he will never be in the situation or anything close to it. Also in response to the images at the top of the page, i think it is discusting that you fabricate and use scare tatics as part of your argument against abortions, when really you have no point which can be put across in a constuctive mannor.
May 28th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Greg I think your heart may be in the right place, but you need to work on getting that across. Calling woman stupid is not only “stupid” on your part, it turns pro-choice people away. It also gives them the since that we hate, and we don’t hate the individual. We just hate the act and what is being done to these poor babies. Also it is a man’s responsibility also. It takes two. As for Straj you need to do some research before you say such things. I have posted before read what Michelle has to say before this. It is not scare tactics. Those instruments are used to rip and tear an unborn fetus apart. That is the truth. If you don’t believe me that is fine, please do your own research. The reason for abortion is the total lack of education of what really happens to these precious babies. Abortion should never be used as a choice of birth control. Please go to Abortion73.com, prolife.com, or watch the silent scream on you-tube. Also if you feel you must go to a pro-choice website, see what they have to say. Also if you can pick up an Anatomy and Physiology book, or look up life, or start of life on the internet. See what the definition of life is. Life starts at conception. What abortionist do to these babies is inhumane. Please educate yourself abortion is not a quick fix. You will live with this decision for the rest of your life. Life is a gift, and who are we to decide when to end it?
May 31st, 2009 at 7:32 pm
What ever people think i feel you have a choice, a choice to use contraceptive then you would get pregnant in the first place, I no so many girls form where i live having one night stands end up pregnant and go for abortion like its a trip to the hair dressers, Inpirticluar this one woman i no has had 4 abortions, I mean come on have you people never heard of the pile condoms injection, imlant,femadome,spermaside,coil, and the list goes on, Im 24 and have the most wonderfull son. I myself was 17 weeks when i found out i was pregnant, i cryed when i found out jus over sheer shock. And guess what the nurse said you can always have an abortoin, I mean the thought never even croosed my mind. I was just in shock
August 11th, 2009 at 11:03 am
abortion will be avoided if pre-maretal sex is control….i think,,80% of the babies will be saved…it’s a big and a great great goal..
September 29th, 2009 at 9:41 am
this disgusts me! it is horrible, how could someone abort an inoccent little baby, its not fair, how could yo do that.
October 6th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I understand both sides of this. I believe that the pro-choice and pro-life sites are BOTH extremely biased. All this site does is show pictures of babies looking cute and sucking their thumbs at a late stage of pregnancy when the reality is that most abortions are done very early – but pictures of those abortions would not invoke so much emotion in people, which is why you aren’t showing them. Pro-choice organisations show no pictures and call pregnancies the ‘content’ of the womb. Both are wrong in portraying their views. When is someone going to give a completely unbiased, medical view of the majority of abortions which are very EARLY abortions? Most people would not agree with late abortions and the reality is – they ARE rare, whatever you say. You don’t need to preach this or show the pictures. What is the reality of a five-week medical abortion, for example? You can’t show instruments of torture for that so am I correct in assuming that’s why you don’t focus on it? What women need is intelligent, correct unbiased medical information – and neither you or the pro-choice websites do this.
October 8th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Thanks Jo. You make some interesting points.
The ProLife Alliance’s position is that all human beings have the right to life, and deserve protection regardless of circumstances or disabilities. I imagine that the pro-life movement’s focus on later-term babies is in an attempt to demonstrate that abortion is the deliberate killing of another human being. Looking at the destruction of a 20 week baby – which is legal (in practice) in the UK for social reasons – highlights the total injustice and obvious abuse of human rights that result from abortion. It is probably an attempt to debunk the myth that unborn babies are in some way not fully human and valuable, and therefore that killing them is not morally unacceptable.
When you talk about wanting “intelligent, correct, unbiased medical information”, I wonder if you are wanting information to justify the morality of abortion. For example: evidence that a 5 week old baby is not fully a human being / does not have any intrinsic worth due to its minimal conscious level / does not have a right to life because it is unable to survive on its own outside the womb / does not have a developed enough nervous system to feel its body being cut apart, etc. But the simple and unavoidable reality of a five-week abortion is that it involves a woman in need being offered no help, other than to have her child poisoned to death, or cut into pieces while alive.
Life is not a sliding scale. From the moment the first cell of a child is formed, a human life begins. And a civilised society protects all human life at all costs.
(For more facts about the abortion procedure at different stages of pregnancy click here)
October 8th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Here we have a picture of the medial equipment used to perform an abortion, like I mentioned prior – an invasive and unpleasant procedure. And yet Kellie really believes that once having one abortion, a woman would readily come back for more, rather than use contraception – a safer, cheaper alternative.
No woman in her right mind views an abortion as a contraception.
October 14th, 2009 at 9:12 am
I think is the most sadest thing your killing a human being there shold be law to stop aborting why would you have sex without using a condom and u know u will have a baby and then abort what kind of person dose that
October 16th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Those tool are just horrible how could anyone perform the abortion
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:17 am
abortion is a load of bull. these pictures are horrible.
November 6th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Why do pro-abortionists call themselves ‘pro-choice’? As far as I can see, the unborn child doesn’t get a ‘choice’. Abortion is murder.