Some years ago, I shared a table and a cocktail conversation with an OBGYN nurse who told me something I’ve never forgotten. For a significant number of early trimester patients seeking to end an “unwanted” pregnancy, an abortion isn’t even called an abortion. It is a simple procedure that doesn’t require disclosure of a pregnancy, or even confirmation to the patient herself that she’s expecting a child. It involves the repurposing of a common gynecological prescriptive normally indicated for other maladies and reasons, but that when performed at first sign of pregnancy is guaranteed to end that pregnancy with no one ever the wiser.

Early trimester dilation and curettage, also known as a “D & C.” A stealth abortion.

As name implies, dilation and curettage involves the dilation of a woman’s cervix to allow the insertion of a curette, a metal-looped scraping device that is normally used to abrade and remove abnormal or excess “tissue” from the lining of the uterus. D & C is often prescribed to women suffering endometriosis, or in patients who produce an overgrowth of endometrial tissue that frequently causes excessive menstrual bleeding and painfully acute monthly periods.

While they are also used as intentional abortion technique later in pregnancy when a recognizable human infant is dismembered and killed in the womb, dilation and curettage procedures can also accomplish a resurfacing of the uterine wall medically intended to alleviate severe menstrual symptoms or to disrupt chronic cycles of infection and uterine inflammation stemming from other causes.

Properly performed, dilation and curettage and uterine evacuation are safe, useful and practical medical techniques for the improvement of woman’s quality of life and the treatment or detection of illnesses like uterine cancer. But as that nurse told me nearly 20 years ago, a swiftly performed ‘D & C’ is also the preferred method of ending an unwanted pregnancy just days or weeks after conception, without the perceived stigma of visiting an abortion clinic or even acknowledging the life of an unborn child.

“Girls come in after their first missed period and schedule a ‘D & C.’ No pregnancy test. No conversation. It’s an unspoken understanding of what’s being done,” the nurse told me.

“Younger patients rarely suffer the medical conditions or symptoms that would normally require dilation and curettage treatment, but the vast majority of ‘D and C’ patients in our practice are young, sexually active women.”

The nurse said her practice frequently saw a dozen or more patients a week requesting the procedure without disclosure or testing for pregnancy.

“Some of them don’t hide the fact that they think they’re pregnant. But most don’t mention it and our doctors understand exactly what arrangements are being made. It was, ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,'” she said.

“It was a stealth abortion.”

With the rise of abortifacient drugs like Mifepristone, early trimester dilation and curettage numbers have dropped significantly in the last decade. But with the overturning of Roe V. Wade and 26 states moving to ban abortion and to make the administering of abortion drugs and “morning after” pills illegal, there are obvious questions about whether women will once again use dilation and curettage “stealth abortions” to skirt existing abortion bans, and whether pro-life states intend to do anything in response.

Closing the loophole would be as simple as passing a law requiring a pregnancy test prior to administering each and every “D & C” procedure and barring that treatment protocol from pregnant women.

If we truly believe human life begins at conception, “don’t ask, don’t tell” ‘D and C’ procedures must require a negative pregnancy test prior to completion, lest this easily exploitable and obvious workaround continue to claim the lives of unborn babies at a rate that only impending abortion prohibition will reveal.

Contact your lawmakers today to require pregnancy testing prior to dilation and curettage. It’s one last step toward a truly clear conscience for pro-life advocates and the defenders of the innocent unborn.