Aid For Women of Kansas City, The Rh Factor and your Pregnancy: Rhogam.

The Rh Factor, Pregnancy, and Abortion

There are approximately 16 blood types such as type A, type B, type O, type AB, Rh positive and Rh negative, Quell factor and others. The only type that effects abortion or pregnancy is the Rh factor which is either postive or negative. Eighty-five percent of the population (including fetuses) are Rh-positive. The only problems are with Rh-negative women.

If an Rh-negative woman has an Rh-positive fetus and she has an abortion (or carries to full term), some of the fetal blood may get into the woman's blood. The woman then becomes allergic to the Rh-negative factor and makes antibodies against it. This causes no immediate problem but if a later pregnancy is carried to term and if the woman has an Rh-positive baby, these antibodies will "fight" (have an allergic reaction to) the baby's blood and the baby at birth may need a blood exchange transfusion and may not survive.

We use a special injection called Rhogam at the time of an abortion which acts like a chemical sponge to soak up and neutralize any Rh-positive factors. Thus, the mother never becomes allergic to the Rh-positive factor, and therefore, there is no problem in the future. This is done with each abortion for the Rh-negative mothers and the same is done for normal deliveries for the same reason.

The injection has, since 1998, become very expensive and we must pass this cost onto you.

From our local bloodbank, here is the distribution of blood types.

O pos	38.5%	Can donate to O+, A+, B+, and AB+
O neg	6.5%	Can donate to anyone, O+, O-, A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+, AB- Universal blood
A pos	34.3%	Can donate to A+, AB+
A neg	5.7%	Can donate to A+, A-, AB+, AB-
B pos	8.6%	Can donate to B+, AB+
B neg	1.7%	Can donate to B+, B-, AB+, AB-
AB pos	4.3%	Can donate to AB+ only
AB neg	0.7%	Can donate to AB+, AB-