Illustration of the abortion of an early embryo. At centre,within the pregnant female uterus,can be seen the amniotic sac (blue) and the yolk sac (yellow) attached to the developing embryo. Con- siderably younger than 8 weeks old,the embryo is the small ingrowth of cells (pink,with blue dot). The placental attachment of the embryo to the wall of the uterus has broken away,due to uterine con- tractions,with subsequent blood loss. Blood is leaving the uterus through the cervix,into the vaginal canal (at lower right). At top,horn-like fallopian tubes lie near the ovaries (white). This abortion,early in pregnancy,may be natural or caused by the morning after pill |