[Early pregnancy termination: what the generalist should know].

Termination of pregnancy before 12 weeks after the last menstrual period is requested by an important number of women. We review the legal framework of abortion in Switzerland and the most used methods for medical abortion precising their contra-indications and most frequent complications. Very rare but fatal cases of infection following medical abortion (with mifepristone and misoprostol) were recently described. We present their clinical characteristics and discuss the related physiopathological process.