Over the course of more than 25 years, family physician Dr. Joan Fleischman has treated women seeking abortions in New York City. After the treatment, Fleischman sometimes asks her patients if they would like to view the pregnancy tissue she has taken from their uterus.
Given the other predominate ideas of pregnancy we have in our thoughts, it is immensely consoling to look at the tissue as it is.
Fleischman and other MYA network members decided that the time was perfect for demonstrating to the nation exactly what was extracted during the manual aspiration method of abortion. This is in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that eliminated the right to abortion on a national level.
The uploaded photos soon went viral, and people were accused of it being manipulated.
However, several additional medical professionals backed up Fleischman’s claim that she photographed the tissue without magnification after rinsing the blood off it. The tissue appears white after the blood has been washed away.
The Decidua and the gestational sac.
Source: theguardian.com
What Do You See In These Pictures?
The villi and sac are visible. The amnion, or sac, eventually contains amniotic fluid and encircles the amniotic cavity.
This amniotic fluid builds up throughout pregnancy and finally transforms into the water bag that breaks during labor.
The villi are the frond-like structures that develop into the placenta while the embryo grows inside the sac.
On an ultrasound, the gestational sac can be seen around 20 days after conception.
The decidua, or decidual tissue, visible in the four-week pregnancy shot as specks, is essentially the period. This is the uterine lining that sheds during menstruation and thickens during pregnancy.
The Embryo, And Where Is It Located?
When doctors examine tissue taken so early in pregnancy, they do not expect to see the embryo developing inside since there is just too little to see.
Around eight weeks, the embryo can sometimes be seen with the naked eye, but this happens more frequently after nine or ten weeks.
The progression from five weeks to nine weeks of pregnancy
Source: theguardian.com