I’m guessing this was in a general surgery center? We had something similar last year when my wife had a miscarriage. She had to go have the 6 week old fetus and all the stuff that goes with it removed, to help her body start healing vs still trying to grow a baby.
The looks and shame she felt were out of this world as the nurses prepped her. It wasn’t until we saw the chart it said “abortion”.
Apparently the technical term for abortion and the technical term for what she was having done are virtually the same, except for 1 word and these nurses aren’t smart enough to know the difference. Thankfully I the procedure was handled by her normal doctor and not a general surgeon
Just FYI, that was on the doctor who sent in the information to the surgery center about what the procedure was. Normally in a situation with a incomplete miscarriage and a need to clean the dead baby and placenta and stuff out, they term that a Dilation and Curretage, or D&C for short. I have never in all my medical experience heard of someone going in and having a D&C and calling it an abortion. If the baby was dead already, there is nothing to abort, it is a D&C. If the baby was still alive, then it would be called an abortion due to aborting the babies life. Essentially the same procedurally, just different from the intention stand point.
I am certainly not trying to make light of a terrible situation to be found, no one who wants a baby ever finds those situations fun or enjoyable. Just letting you know why there are terminology differences and it wasn't the surgery center's fault for the term change. That was on the doc or at least the office the doc works.
And one final clarification of what you said: no one should EVER have surgery from a surgeon they were not consented to have surgery with and no one should EVER have bait and switch surgery where you think it is one surgeon doing the surgery and another pops in and does the consent and surgery. People in general need to way more proactive about their health care and not just go along with the flow because someone says so. If something doesnt make sense, question it. If the question draws bad answers or makes people answering the questions mad, then just find somewhere else to go...there are plenty of options out there for anyone to have substandard care these days.
I personally value it when my patients ask questions as it shows they understand what is going on and allows me to build the trust relationship more. I have told many patients I would not do their surgery as their expectations were out of sync or if they say they don't trust something in our system or someone who works in my office...I fully expect the ability to change docs and say no to patients to go both ways and it should.