It was confirmed that even 10 minutes long general anesthesia necessary for surgery can cause postoperative morbidity. This fact is of the utmost importance for the choice of anesthetics, especially when the operation is to take place in out-patient conditions. The aim of this study was to compare clinical efficacy, tolerability and adverse effects of thiopental, etomidate and propofol. The study comprised 165 out-patients scheduled for legal abortion under general intravenous anaesthesia. Patients were randomly divided into three groups. In patients from the first group (n = 53) anesthesia was induced with thiopental 5 mg/kg, in the second group (n = 54) with etomidate 0.3 mg/kg, and in the third group (n = 58) with propofol 2.5 mg/kg. Blood pressure, heart rate and adverse effects were monitored during anesthesia and operation and immediately thereafter. The best quality of anesthesia and the best working conditions of gynaecologist were after the use propofol, then after thiopental, followed by etomidate. Frequency of adverse effects was significantly greater after anesthesia with etomidate (26.06%), when compared to propofol (9.69%) and thiopental (9.09%). Immediately after induction to anesthesia, adverse effects were found after the use of thiopental, etomidate and propofol in 7.5%, 9.07% and 5.1% of patients, respectively. During anaesthesia, adverse effects were registered in 5.6%, 37.03% and 5.1% of patients in thiopental, etomidate and propofol group, respectively. In the same three groups, frequency of adverse effects in the immediate post-anesthetic recovery period was 15.09%, 62.09% and 17.06%, respectively. It could be concluded that in this study, out of the three anesthetics investigated, propofol had the greatest clinical efficacy and tolerability and the lowest incidence of adverse effects.