View source for Abortion

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==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 {{USA}}, 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.
===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 [[pro-choice|abortion choice advocates]] is based in [[eugenics]]
*** [[/black genocide]]: a primary goal of [[pro-choice|abortion choice advocates]] is that of reducing the number of [[black people]], or possibly [[genocide|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.
*** [[/damage]]: abortion causes more damage than good; [[pro-choice|choice advocates]] ignore this fact
*** [[/industry]]: abortion is a huge industry (this is related to, but separate from, the profit claim)
*** [[Abortion for boutique eugenics]]: editorial arguing that abortion will inevitably be misused
* [[pro-choice]] sees abortion as an unpleasant necessity, while working to reduce the need for it
===Discussion===
* '''legislation''':
** [[/legality]]: Under what circumstances (if any) should abortion be [[legality of abortion|legal]]?
** [[/public funding]]: Under what circumstances (if any) should abortion be [[public funding of abortion|publicly funded]]?
* '''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
** There is some evidence that the [[wikipedia:Roe v. Wade|legalization of abortion in the U.S.]] led to a dramatic decrease in the crime rate at approximately the time when the "ghost children" (the kids who would have been born if abortion had remained illegal) would have been reaching adulthood.
*** See: ''Freakonomics'', ISBN 006073132X, and commentary by [http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2005-09-11-1.html Orson Scott Card]
*** Obviously this does not ''prove'' a connection, but the evidence deserves further examination.
*** If a connection can be established, then there also remains the ethical question of whether a decline in crime is worth the cost of the increase in abortions ([[costs and benefits]] for this particular outcome, or in other words: How much less crime? How many more abortions?), to which some groups might well answer "no".
===Related issues===
* [[reproductive issues]]
** [[birth control]]
** [[sex education]]
** [[extramarital sex]]

==Notes==
Need some documentation about extremism on either side; it should be easy enough to find news items about pro-lifers bombing or vandalizing abortion clinics, but I'd also like to hear about anything bad done in the name of pro-choice. Items about arguably ''positive'' actions taken by either side may also be relevant, e.g. the woman who goes around buying up abortion clinics and changing their mission to be consistent with the pro-life point of view &ndash; which is at least a peaceful and lawful method of working against abortion even if you don't agree with the goal. --[[User:Woozle|Woozle]] 12:40, 2 August 2006 (EDT)

[[:Image:2009-01-26 abortion clinic selected stats normalized.png|some stats on abortion clinic incidents]]

==Links==
===Reference===
* Wikipedia:
** [[wikipedia:Abortion|Abortion]]
** [[wikipedia:Abortion debate|Abortion debate]]
** [[wikipedia:Roe v. Wade|Roe v. Wade]] led to legalization of abortion in the U.S.
* {{conservapedia}}: [[Hippocrates]] prohibited abortion, and it's a billion-dollar industry in the US and Western Europe
* {{dkosopedia}}
* {{sourcewatch|Reproductive health}} (Reproductive health)
===Official Positions===
* '''1995-03-25''' [http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0141/_P3.HTM Pope John Paul II] restates the Catholic Church's position on abortion and other "life" issues, with links to keyword indices
===News===
{{links/news}}
====to be filed====
* '''2012-01-19''' [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57362079-10391704/abortion-more-common-where-its-illegal-where-are-rates-highest/ 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''' [http://www.alternet.org/rights/50788/ 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 [[wikipedia:Intact dilation and extraction|Intact dilation and extraction]]
* '''2007-04-19''' [http://www.alternet.org/rights/50781/ Supreme Court Ruling Threatens Women's Health] by Amy Goodman
* '''2006-06-21''' [http://www.alternet.org/rights/37877/ Anti-Choice Legislators Have Gone Too Far] (should eventually go in [[anti-abortion]] article)
* '''2006-01-27''' [http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-01/aps-aaa012606.php Abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups share some values]

===Video===
* '''1992''' ''[http://www.archive.org/details/when_abortion_was_illegal When Abortion Was Illegal: Untold Stories]'': includes some [[anti-abortion]] arguments in the comment section
* '''2006''' [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0841119/ Lake of Fire] A documentary showing realistic and extreme views on abortion.

===Humor===
* '''2006-08-01''' [http://www.idrewthis.org/d/20060801.html Thinking of the children] (D.C. Simpson, [http://www.idrewthis.org/ I Drew This]): right-to-life vs. early childhood welfare

==Quotes==
{{excerpt|[[David Brin]] said, in a sidebar to [http://www.davidbrin.com/realculturewar2.html part 2] of "[http://www.davidbrin.com/realculturewar1.html The Real Culture War]":}}
JESUS AND ABORTION:
 
Consider the trap that [[liberal (US)|the left]] has fallen into regarding [[Jesus Christ|Jesus]].
 
Back in the sixties, much of the clergy leaned leftward and away from supporting the [[Vietnam War]]. The image of Jesus was that of a bearded quasi-hippie in sandals, who preached that the rich should give their very shirts to the poor. What has changed? Certainly not the passages of [[scripture]] that were quoted then. Passages that would make Jesus seem... well... rather socialistic in any era.
 
Then came abortion. It gave [[conservative (US)|the right]] a handle by which to reclaim Jesus. By declaring ideologically that any fertilized cell is a [[personhood|full human being]], radicals turned any abortion - even many forms of [[birth control]] - into baby killing. And despite all his other socialist leanings, Jesus would have to take sides against baby-killers, right? Voila! Suddenly the moral high ground no longer belonged to the left. That is, in the eyes of anybody who could be talked into seeing a human being in a fertilized egg. When that became a major dogma of the right, millions went right along.
 
So the left lost Jesus. And with Jesus went the churches. And with the churches... well...
 
Must all liberals play this game between two sides who insist on waging social war over fertilized cells? At risk of incurring ire from some of my feminist friends, I don't see any reason to declare absolute all-or-nothing positions on a subject so murky and ill-defined as [[personhood|when human life begins]].
 
Imagine some liberal group declaring: "All right, there may be some changes afoot that we don't like. A new Supreme Court may start pushing at the fringes of Roe-vs-Wade. We may need to raise millions in "scholarships" to fly poor women from red states to New York...
 
"But let other groups handle that. We refuse to get involved in abortion. We welcome anti-abortion people who want to work with us on other matters, helping the poor (as Jesus would want), questioning capricious or ill conceived wars, raising the minimum wage, preserving God's Earth. Let other groups be proudly secular, or even pagan. We are going to reclaim the man who walked in sandals among the poor, feeding them from a loaf and a fish."
{{-excerpt}}