Abortion

About

Abortion is the killing and removal of a fetus before birth. It is generally only an issue with regard to human birth, where it is forbidden by many religions and opposed by others. It is also illegal in some countries, and more countries make it illegal as the fetus comes closer to term.

In the United States, proponents of legalized abortion generally describe themselves as "pro-choice", while those who seek to restrict or criminalize abortion generally describe themselves as "pro-life". Feelings on both sides tend to run very high, but extremists on the "pro-life" seem to have a greater tendency towards extreme actions, e.g. making threats against doctors who perform abortions, and even occasional acts of bodily harm or murder. They also do not seem able to honestly address the arguments against their position.

Pages

• /US: abortion in the United States
• /ban: outright banning of abortions, whether selectively or universally
• /counterlaw: other laws (besides banning) ostensibly intended to reduce abortions
• /reasons that people actually seek abortions (statistics)
• /recreational abortion, aka abortion as birth-control^A
• /stories: anecdotes to illustrate the actual reasons why people seek abortions

Positions

• anti-abortion: generally views killing of any fetus, at any developmental phase, as murder
  • pro-life: opposes abortion in the name of promoting life, generally opposes violence too but some violent anti-abortionists call themselves "pro-life" nonetheless
  • Claims of those who oppose legal abortion include:
    • /eugenics: the primary goal of abortion choice advocates is based in eugenics
      • Abortion for boutique eugenics: editorial arguing that abortion will inevitably be misused
    • /black genocide: a primary goal of abortion choice advocates is that of reducing the number of black people, or possibly eliminating them altogether.
    • /profit: abortion doctors and clinics are primarily motivated by money
      • The real money is in 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions; nobody wants to do 1st trimester.
    • /health: health effects
      • /cancer: it is claimed that abortion causes cancer
    • /industry: abortion is a huge industry (this is related to, but separate from, the profit claim)
    • /prohibition: anti-abortionists generally see prohibition as essential
• pro-choice sees abortion as an unpleasant necessity, while working to reduce the need for it

Discussion

• /stories: individual stories about abortions
• ethics:
  • personhood: at what point does a fetus become a person, and acquire the right to live?
• science/facts:
  • Human gestational development: the stages of development of a human embryo/fetus
  • /reasons why abortions are requested

Related issues

• reproductive issues
  • birth control
  • sex education
  • extramarital sex

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia:
  • Abortion
  • Abortion debate
• dKosopedia
• SourceWatch (Reproductive health)

Official Positions

• 1995-03-25 Pope John Paul II restates the Catholic Church's position on abortion and other "life" issues, with links to keyword indices

News

• 2014/07/11 [L..T] What We Don't Talk About When We Don't Talk About Abortion "I had an abortion four years ago. I just recently decided to start talking about it."
• 2014/05/05 [L..T] Why I Filmed My Abortion
• 2014/04/29 [L..T] Google Removes Deceptive Crisis Pregnancy Center Ads
• 2014/04/27 [L..T] GOP War on Women: Mississippi Could Soon Lose its Only Abortion Clinic
• 2014/03/14 [L..T] The Day I Decided to Have an Abortion
• 2013/01/02 [L..T] Hypocrisy? Hobby Lobby fights government mandate to give employees access to birth control coverage on religious grounds, yet makes millions on products primarily from China where 7 million abortions and forced contraceptive surgeries a year take place "...one company stands out in its perceived civil disobedience lawsuit fighting the government mandate to give employees access to birth control coverage. Citing violation of religious beliefs, the owners of Hobby Lobby, the David Green family, doesn't want to provide access to birth control they think will induce abortion, although according to Tulsa World they have covered other forms of birth control in the past."
• 2008/07/02 [L..T] Women Say Economy Was Factor In Getting Abortions “There were 13,843 abortions performed in Minnesota in 2007. Of the women who listed a reason for their abortions, 40 percent cited economic concerns – the largest share since the state started collecting detailed abortion information a decade ago.”
• 2007/11/21 [L..T] O'Reilly: "War" on Christmas part of "secular progressive agenda" that includes "legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage" “...decrying the purported "war" on Christmas, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly claimed that "it's all part of the secular progressive agenda ... to get Christianity and spirituality and Judaism out of the public square."”

to be filed

• 2012-01-19 Abortion more common where it's illegal: Where are rates highest? "The new global abortion study - that's published in the Jan. 19 issue of The Lancet - is from the U.S.-based Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization. Researchers found a link between higher abortion rates and regions with more restrictive legislation, such as in Latin America and Africa. They also found that 95 to 97 percent of abortions in those regions were unsafe."
• 2007-04-21 How Media Mistakes Fueled the High Court Abortion Ruling by Gloria Feldt, Women's Media Center: states that there is no such thing as a "partial birth abortion", but this term is apparently used to refer to Intact dilation and extraction
• 2007-04-19 Supreme Court Ruling Threatens Women's Health by Amy Goodman
• 2006-06-21 Anti-Choice Legislators Have Gone Too Far (should eventually go in anti-abortion article)
• 2006-01-27 Abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups share some values

Video

• 1992 When Abortion Was Illegal: Untold Stories: includes some anti-abortion arguments in the comment section
• 2006 Lake of Fire A documentary showing realistic and extreme views on abortion.

Humor

• 2006-08-01 Thinking of the children (D.C. Simpson, I Drew This): right-to-life vs. early childhood welfare