Abortion, in contemporary parlance, refers to the intentional termination of pregnancy. Abortion became one of the most divisive issues of the last quarter of the 20th century and remains an important question in contemporary political discourse in the United States.

Throughout most of American history, abortion had been legal prior to "quickening," or the perception of fetal movement on the part of the woman. Most state legislatures did not pass laws proscribing the practice until the late 19th century. The idea of liberalizing abortion laws became culturally salient during the late 1960s, and several state legislatures passed relatively permissive abortion laws during this period. The trend toward gradual liberalization was interrupted by the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, which held virtually all state abortion laws to be unconstitutional.

Although public opinion generally moved in a more prochoice direction following Roe, the decision mobilized opposition from several, often religious, sources. Many cultural and religious conservatives opposed legal abortion because legal abortion was thought to encourage sexual promiscuity by reducing the risks of sexual activity outside of marriage. Another early source of opposition to legal abortion came from the African-American community. Several African-American leaders denounced legal abortion as "genocide" and suggested that easy access to abortion would ultimately be used by whites to limit societal responsibility to care for children born into poverty.

The most visible opposition to Roe came from Roman Catholic Church and Evangelical Protestant leaders, who regarded abortion as the taking of human life. Indeed, since the Roe decision, opponents of legal abortion have been characterized by themselves and opponents as "pro-life." Catholics opposed legal abortion on the ground that intentional termination of pregnancy constituted a violation of natural law. Since the early 1950s, the fetus was regarded as "ensouled" (and, therefore, fully human) from the moment of conception. Evangelical Protestants came to oppose abortion on the basis of biblical passages in Exodus, Leviticus, and Proverbs. Conversely, support for legal abortion has come primarily from people who regard a woman's right to control her own fertility as fundamental. Abortion, to some activists, has come to be regarded as an issue of women's rights, and proponents of legal abortion have generally been characterized as "prochoice."

One possible consequence of these changes in abortion jurisprudence is that, since the early 1990s, abortion has become a highly partisan issue. Among both party leaders and members of the mass public, the abortion issue has become more polarized along party lines, with the Democratic Party taking a generally consistent pro-choice position and the Republicans becoming more uniformly pro-life. Abortion has become a very important issue in many elections in the United States.

In response to the continued legality of abortion, many pro-life activists have resorted to "direct action," which has included sidewalk counseling near abortion clinics, obstructing access to such facilities, vandalism of abortion clinics, and occasional violence against abortion providers. Many of these activists are motivated by religious zeal, although their actions are generally condemned by most religious leaders.

Abortion activists on both sides of the issue have been challenged by a number of developments in the evolution of the issue. Contemporary abortion debate now centers around the morality and legality of so-called partial birth abortions, which are late-term abortions performed for medical reasons. Other controversies surround the use of the drug RU-486, which provides an alternative to surgical abortions in the early stages of pregnancy, and the appropriateness of research on fetal tissue. Fetal tissue research has appeared to be a promising avenue of inquiry for curing such maladies as Alzheimer's disease and juvenile diabetes, but the morality of such research has been challenged by pro-life advocates.

	Essay on The Impact of Restrictive Abortion Legislation
	The Impact of Restrictive Abortion Legislation Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Social Issues. Abortion is one of the most common and safest medical procedures that women age 15 to 44 can undergo in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 Statistical Abstract, which combines figures reported by the Centers for Disease Control and the individual states, approximately 1.2 million abortions were performed in the United States in 2005. Among women aged 15 to 44, the abortion rate declined from 27 out of 1,000 in 1990 to 19.4 out of 1,000 in 2005. The number of abortions and the rate of abortions have declined over the years, partly as a result of improved methods of birth control and partly as a result of decreased access to abortion services. The number...
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	Essay on The Legal Right to Abortion
	The Legal Right to Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Social Issues. Two important legal cases reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970s established the legal right to abortion. In the first and more important case, Roe v. Wade (1973), the court overturned a Texas law that prohibited abortions in all circumstances except when the pregnant woman's life was endangered. In a second companion case, Doe v. Bolton (1973), the high court ruled that denying a woman the right to decide whether to carry a pregnancy to term violated privacy rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights. These decisions, rendered by a 7-2 vote by the Supreme Court justices in 1973, struck down state statutes outlawing abortion and laid the groundwork for one of the most...
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	Essay on Early Abortion Laws
	Early Abortion Laws Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Social Issues. Laws governing abortion up until the early 19th century were modeled after English Common Law, which criminalized abortion after "quickening," or the point in fetal gestational development where a woman could feel fetal movement. Prior to quickening, the fetus was believed to be little more than a mass of undifferentiated cells. Concurrent with the formal organization of the American Medical Association in the mid-1800s, increasingly restrictive abortion laws were enacted. In general, these laws were designed to decrease competition between physicians and midwives, as well as other lay practitioners of medicine, including pharmacists. A few short years later, the New York Society for the...
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	Essay on Abortion as a Social Problem
	Abortion as a Social Problem Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Social Issues. As a contemporary social issue, elective abortion raises important questions about the rights of pregnant women, the meaning of motherhood, and the rights of fetuses. Since the late 1960s, abortion has been a key issue in the contemporary U.S. culture wars. The term culture wars refers to ongoing political debates over contemporary social issues, including not only abortion but also homosexuality, the death penalty, and euthanasia. Culture wars arise from conflicting sets of values between conservatives and progressives. The culture war debates, particularly those surrounding the issue of abortion, remain contentious among the American public. The debates have resulted in disparate and strongly...
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	Essay on Infanticide Definition and History
	Infanticide Definition and History Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Marriage and Family Life. Infanticide entails actions that result in the death of an infant of the same species. Several species commit infanticide, including birds (e.g., skuas and egrets) and mammals (e.g., gerbils, wild stallions, Serengeti lions, and primates such as langurs, gorillas, and humans). Among species other than humans, infanticide is usually carried out by an invading male to increase his reproductive chances by eliminating the young of a rival male so as to force the female to mate with him. Among humans, infanticide may range from deliberate to not fully conscious actions that result in the death of a child typically less than twelve months of age. The age may vary, however, depending on cultural...
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	Research Paper on Cloning in America: Constitutional Rights and Boundaries
	Cloning in America: Constitutional Rights and Boundaries Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. In 1994, Federal District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein struck down Washington state's ban on physician-assisted suicide. In her opinion she employed what she thought was the logic of Casey: "Like the abortion decision, the decision of a terminally ill person to end his or her life 'involves the most intimate and personal choices a person can make in a lifetime,' and constitutes a 'choice central to personal dignity and autonomy.'" Legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin makes a similar claim. Our Constitution takes no sides in these ancient disputes...
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	Research Paper on Constitutional Right to Clone
	Constitutional Right to Clone Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Is the constitutional right to reproductive liberty broad enough to encompass cloning? It depends. There are aspects of the Supreme Court's decisions on reproductive liberty that seem to point toward personal autonomy on matters of lifestyle, marital choices, and intimacy as being part of the foundation of that liberty. If that is the case, then it seems that there is a constitutional right to clone that states may restrict only if there is a compelling state interest. On the other hand, there are aspects of these same Supreme Court decisions...
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	Research Paper on Cloning and Society
	Cloning and Society Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Unlike other forms of reproductive assistance, SCNT cloning allows one to choose the particular genome for one's "offspring." Some have argued that this sort of control over and selection of another's genome may result in viewing the child-clone produced as "made" rather than "begotten." That is, some argue that human cloning will have more in common with manufacturing than procreating, and this will lead people to begin to think of these children (and perhaps non-cloned children as well) as commodities selected for their attributes rather than as persons who should be valued for their own sake...
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	Research Paper on Nonreproductive Reasons against Cloning
	Nonreproductive Reasons against Cloning Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Someone may want to clone entire human beings as well as incomplete human beings for purposes other than becoming a parent. Cloning could be a plentiful resource for stem cells, which could "serve as the starter stock for growing replacement nerve, muscle and other tissues that might one day be used to treat patients with a variety of diseases." Nonreproductive cloning also holds out the possibility of increasing the supply of tissues and organs for transplantation by cloning full or intentionally damaged human beings...
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	Research Paper on The Cloning Controversy: Legal and Political Reactions
	The Cloning Controversy: Legal and Political Reactions Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Alarmed by the prospect of human cloning generated by Dolly, Congress and the White House called for legislation in March of 1997 that would ban human cloning. President Bill Clinton, by executive order, prohibited the use of federal funds for cloning. The president also requested that the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) evaluate the legal and ethical questions raised by the possibility of human cloning. In arriving at its conclusion and recommendations, the commission conducted hearings over approximately three months...
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	Research Paper on What is Cloning?
	What is Cloning? Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. In early 1997, Dr. Ian Wilmut, a Scottish scientist, made headlines when he presented Dolly to the world, a sheep that he cloned from a six-year-old ewe. Three and one-half years earlier, Drs. Jerry Hall and Robert Stillman cloned a human embryo by successfully splitting one human embryo into two. This process occurs naturally in the case of identical human twins, but Hall and Stillman were the first to replicate this process artificially. And on October 13, 2001, scientists at Advanced Cell Technology (Worcester, Massachusetts) made biomedical history...
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	Research Paper on Questions about Abortion
	Questions about Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. If the unborn is considered a moral subject under the law, would it not follow that pregnant women would be prohibited from smoking, drinking alcohol, or engaging in other activities that may harm the unborn? The fact that smoking and drinking alcohol during pregnancy can harm the unborn is well documented in the medical and scientific literature. Consequently, because such activity is harmful to the unborn, and the unborn are moral subjects, a mother has a moral responsibility to make sure her unborn child is not harmed, just as she does after the child's birth...
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	Research Paper on Objections about Abortion Conception
	Objections about Abortion Conception Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Isn't an unborn human, at least in its earliest stages of development, like an acorn that is only a potential oak tree? This analogy has been used on many occasions by abortion-choice advocates. For example, Frank R. Zindler, in an article that originially appeared in American Atheist, argues: "As for potential persons, an acorn is not an oak tree!" Aside from the problem of claiming that the unborn are "potential persons," there is a strong reason to believe this analogy is flawed. Because a human being is a mammal and an oak tree is a plant...
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	Research Paper on The SLED Test and Abortion
	The SLED Test and Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Stephen Schwarz has provided a useful acronym (SLED) to describe the four differences between the unborn and the born - Size, Level of development, Environment, and degree of dependency - all of which are morally irrelevant in deciding whether anyone, born or unborn, has a fundamental right to life. The theories of personhood covered in this paper either implicitly or explicitly accept one or more of these differences as morally relevant. Because we have already discussed and critiqued these theories, what follows is merely a shorthand way to summarize the problems...
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	Research Paper on Abortion and Brain Waves
	Abortion and Brain Waves Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Some bioethicists, such as Baruch Brody, maintain the unborn becomes a subject of rights when its brain starts functioning, which can first be detected by the electroencephalogram (EEG) at about the end of the sixth week of pregnancy. This view differs from Boonin's organized cortical brain activity criterion I critiqued earlier. For Boonin, what is important is that the unborn acquire conscious desires to ground rights; but these desires can take place only when the brain has organized cortical activity, which occurs between 25 and 32 weeks' gestation...
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	Research Paper on Abortion and Human Appearance
	Abortion and Human Appearance Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Some argue that the unborn becomes a "human being," or a subject of rights, at the time it begins to take on the appearance of a child. Ernest Van Den Haag is sympathetic to this criterion. He writes that when the unborn acquires a functioning brain and neural system soon after the first trimester it "starts to resemble an embryonic human being." And after this point "abortion seems justifiable only by the gravest of reasons, such as the danger to the mother; for what is being aborted undeniably resembles a human being to an uncomfortable degree."...
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	Essay on Boonin's Organized Cortical Brain Activity Argument
	Boonin's Organized Cortical Brain Activity Argument Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. David Boonin offers his own desires account of the right to life. He argues that the human being does not achieve this moral status until it acquires organized cortical brain activity, which may occur as early as 25 weeks' gestation or as late as 32 weeks. Here is a summary of his argument: 1. Organized cortical brain activity must be present for a being to be capable of having conscious experience, 2. Prior to having a conscious experience, a being has no desires, 3. Desires (as understood in Boonin's taxonomy, shown later) are necessary for a being...
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	Essay on Thomson-Dworkin Abortion Argument
	Thomson-Dworkin Abortion Argument Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Thomson relies on the work of Ronald Dworkin, who argues that it is "'very hard to make sense of the idea' that a fetus has rights from the moment of conception. Having rights seems to presuppose having interests, which in turn seems to presuppose having wants, hopes, fears, likes and dislikes. But an early fetus lacks the physical constitution required for such psychological states." Instead of presenting one of the many philosophically sophisticated pro-life responses to this sort of argument, Thomson employs her own, an argument that is intended to show...
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	Essay on Stretton's Abortion Argument
	Stretton's Abortion Argument Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Dean Stretton offers a thought-experiment to show that personhood need not be an essential property of a living organism, which Stretton claims is contrary to the substance view of human beings whose advocates claim that the substance, the human being, is a person by nature and does not become a person by achievement. Stretton asks us to imagine an organism, such as a dog (that we will call "Phydeaux"), which is not an intrinsically valuable entity. However, suppose we have the technological sophistication to add to Phydeaux's brain the cerebrum of a fully mature human brain...
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	Essay on Pro-Lifers and Capital Punishment
	Pro-Lifers and Capital Punishment Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Some abortion-choice (and even pro-life) advocates argue that the pro-lifers who support capital punishment are inconsistent because, on the one hand, they oppose killing in abortion but, on the other hand, support killing in capital punishment. There are several problems with this reasoning. First, how does this help the abortion-choice position or hurt the prolife position on abortion? Wouldn't this argument make people who are against capital punishment and for abortion choice equally inconsistent? Second, inconsistent people can draw good conclusions...
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	Essay on Impossibility of Legally Stopping Abortion
	Impossibility of Legally Stopping Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Maybe the defender of the above argument is making the more subtle point that because there is widespread disagreement on the abortion issue, enforcement of any laws prohibiting abortion would be difficult. In other words, abortions are going to happen anyway, so we ought to make them safe and legal. There are several problems with this argument. First, it begs the question, because it assumes that the unborn is not fully human. For if the unborn is fully human, this argument is tantamount to saying that because people will unjustly kill other people anyway...
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	Essay on Religious Pluralism and Abortion
	Religious Pluralism and Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. According to this argument, the question of when protectable human life begins is a personal religious question that one must answer for oneself. As abortion-choicer Mollenkott argues: Women who believe that abortion is murder may never justly be required to have an abortion. Anti-abortion laws would not affect such women for obvious reasons. But for women whose religious beliefs do permit them to consider abortion (and under certain circumstances require them to do so), anti-abortion legislation would forbid their following these religious convictions...
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	Essay on The Social Necessity of Abortion
	The Social Necessity of Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. In his famous dissent in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1990), Justice Harry A. Blackmun claims that without freedom to choose abortion there will be no "full participation of women in the economic and political walks of American life." Blackmun is echoing the call of popular abortion-choice rhetoric that asserts that women cannot achieve social and political equality without control of their reproductive lives. In addition to Blackmun's comments, consider the following put forth by other abortion-choice supporters...
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	Essay on If Abortion is Made Illegal
	If Abortion is Made Illegal Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. According to abortion-choice supporters, if abortion is made illegal, many women will be prosecuted, convicted, and/or sentenced for murder (a capital offense in some states) because the changed law will entail that abortion in almost every circumstance is the unjustified and premeditated killing of an innocent human person (the unborn). Abortion-choice activists argue that such a situation will unnecessarily cause emotional and familial harm to women who are already in a difficult situation. Such laws, if they are instituted, will lack compassion...
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	Essay on Abortion and Incest
	Abortion and Incest Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. A woman who becomes pregnant due to an act of either rape or incest is a victim of a horribly violent and morally reprehensible crime. Although pregnancy as a result of either rape or incest is extremely rare, pregnancy does occur in some instances. Bioethicist Andrew Varga, an opponent of abortion, summarizes the argument from rape and incest: It is argued that in these tragic cases the great value of the mental health of a woman who becomes pregnant as a result of rape or incest can best be safe-guarded by abortion. It is also said that a pregnancy caused by rape or incest...
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	Essay on Eugenic Abortion and Deformed Children
	Abortion and Deformed Children Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. A society whose ethic asserts that certain preborn human beings forfeit their right to life simply because they have a certain physical deformity or mental handicap is a society that has put in its social fabric premises that will make it more likely for its citizens to judge those born human beings with the same flaws as having lives "not worth living." For passing through the birth canal, as passing through the Panama Canal, does nothing to change who one is. The logic of this conclusion was played out in a real-life situation in 1982...
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	Essay on Abortion and Child Abuse
	Abortion and Child Abuse Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Many people in the abortion-choice movement argue that legal abortion will help eliminate unwanted children. They believe that unwantedness is indirectly responsible for a great number of family problems, such as child abuse. Hence, if a family can have the "correct" amount of children at the "proper" times, then these family problems will be greatly reduced if not eliminated.6 There are several serious problems with this argument. First, it begs the question, because only by assuming that the unborn are not fully human does this argument work. For if the unborn are fully human...
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	Essay on Economic Inequity and Abortion
	Economic Inequity and Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Abortion-choice advocates often argue that prior to abortion being legalized, pregnant women who did not go to unscrupulous physicians or "back alley butchers" traveled to foreign nations where abortions were legal. This was an option open only to rich women who could afford such an expense. Hence, Roe v. Wade has made the current situation fairer for poor women. Therefore, if abortion is prohibited it will not prevent rich women from having safe and legal abortions elsewhere. This argument is fallacious...
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	Essay on Partial-Birth Abortion Method
	Partial-Birth Abortion Method Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Partial-Birth Abortion (or X-abortion) is sometimes the procedure of choice for physicians performing abortions in the late second and third trimesters. Using ultrasound, the doctor grips the fetus's legs with forceps. The unborn is then pulled out through the birth canal and delivered with the exception of its head. While the head is in the womb the doctor penetrates the live fetus's skull with scissors, opens the scissors to enlarge the hole, and then inserts a catheter. The fetus's brain is vacuumed out, resulting in the skull's collapse...
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	Essay on Suction Curettage Abortion Method
	Suction Curettage Abortion Method Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, an opponent of abortion choice, explains this type of abortion in graphic detail: In this procedure, usually before the twelfth or thirteenth week of pregnancy, the uterus is approached through the vagina. The cervix is stretched to permit the insertion of a curette, a tiny hoe like instrument. The surgeon then scrapes the wall of the uterus, cutting the baby's body to pieces and scraping the placenta from its attachments on the uterine wall. Bleeding is considerable...
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	Essay on The Zygote Development
	The Zygote Development Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Some thinkers have argued that the zygote is not an individual human being at conception because in the initial stages of cell division it does not rely on the informational content of its own genes to direct its development. Rather, the mother's messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), inherited from the ovum responsible for the zygote's existence, directs its development until the four- to eight-cell stage. After that time, the zygote's own genes are activated and it begins to develop in accordance with the information encoded in those genes...
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	Essay on Aspects of Human Beings Concept
	Aspects of Human Beings Concept Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Suppose someone were to respond to this analysis by arguing that if we really believe that every conception is a human being, are we not obligated to prevent all spontaneous abortions even though it may lead to overpopulation and an appropriation of medical and other resources that may have catastrophic results? First, this response does not show that the newly conceived entity is not a human being who began her existence at conception; rather, it is an attack upon the intellectual consistency of those who offer arguments to support their belief that the newly conceived entity is a human being whose existence began at conception. It is those arguments, and not the people who...
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	Essay on Arguments Against Abortion
	Arguments Against Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Although it is widely acknowledged in the scientific literature that the individual human being begins at conception, there are some who have challenged this notion. Unlike the thinkers who maintain that the unborn is a human being from conception but does not become a person until sometime later, those whose arguments we evaluate in this section do not address the personhood question but rather offer reasons for denying that conception is the time at which an individual human being comes into existence. They believe that the human being comes into existence very early...
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	Essay on A Human Being as a Conception
	A Human Being as a Conception Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. From a strictly scientific point of view, it seems reasonable to believe that the development of an individual human life begins at conception. Consequently, each human being begins her physical existence as a zygote and that organism does not acquire its humanness at some later stage in its development. The human organism remains a human being throughout her life, from zygote to embryo to fetus to newborn to adolescent and throughout adulthood until natural death at which the existence of the living organism ends. None of these stages imparts to the human being her humanity...
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	Essay on Abortion and the Facts of Fetal Development
	Abortion and the Facts of Fetal Development Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. What does it mean to say that a particular being is human, that he or she is a member of the species Homo sapiens? How, for example, may one distinguish a human being from, let's say, a dog, a cat, a grapefruit, or a human being's part such as a finger or a blood cell? And if the being in the womb is a human being, what are the methods by which the abortionist accomplishes his goal of extinguishing that being's life? We will do so by presenting the facts of prenatal development as well as the methods used by physicians to terminate an unwanted pregnancy...
	Research Paper Essay on Abortion and the Facts of Fetal Development »
	Research Paper on Islamic Perspective on Abortion
	Islamic Perspective on Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. The abortion debate in Islam takes place in a particular religious environment created by the divinely revealed teachings of the religion. These teachings are accepted by Muslims as sacred and immutable and have remained unquestioned in the debate over the centuries. The most important of these teachings concerns the meaning and purpose of human life. Islam teaches that human life is sacred because its origin is none other than God, who is the Sacred and the ultimate source of all that is sacred. Human beings are God's noblest creatures by virtue of the fact that he has breathed his spirit into every human body, male and female, at a certain stage of its embryological development...
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	Research Paper on Roman Catholic Perspective on Abortion
	Roman Catholic Perspective on Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. In his 1930 encyclical on marriage, Casti connubii, Pius XI affirmed the equal sacredness of mother and fetus, but condemned the destruction of the "innocent child" in the womb, who can in no way be considered an "unjust assailant." (The sticking point here, of continuing interest to moralists, is whether it is necessary to have an unjust intention to qualify as an unjust aggressor, or whether unintentionally posing an unjust danger to another is sufficient. Soldiers in war, for instance, may have noble personal intentions, yet validly be viewed by their opponents as unjust attackers.) The Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et spes, no. 51) referred to abortion and infanticide...
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	Research Paper on Abortion Regulation: Model of Permission
	Abortion Regulation: Model of Permission Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. The model of permission became the pervasive one around the world in the final quarter of the twentieth century. Under the model of permission, abortion is legally available, but only with the approval of government officials or officially-designated decision makers, such as administrative boards, committees, physicians, or judges. In some permission-model jurisdictions, officials grant permission pro forma in nearly every case...
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	Research Paper on Partial Birth Abortion
	Partial Birth Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Partial birth abortion is a nonmedical term coined by antiabortionists to describe an abortion procedure known technically as intact dilation and extraction (D&X). D&X is used primarily in second trimester abortions, and the procedure involves partially delivering a living fetus into the birth canal, then collapsing the skull and completing delivery of a dead but otherwise intact fetus. In an amici brief to the Supreme Court, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists noted that D&X involves substantially less risk of complication than other methods of abortion used during the same gestational period (Stenberg v. Carhart, 2000). Fewer than five percent of abortions performed...
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	Research Paper on The Selective Abortion Controversy
	The Selective Abortion Controversy Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. The development of tests to prenatally diagnose genetic diseases and disorders has greatly outpaced the development of effective treatments and therapies. The Human Genome Project promises to accelerate the development of prenatal diagnostic tests. Through procedures like chorionic villus sampling (CVS), which can be performed at ten weeks gestation, and amniocentesis, available at fourteen to sixteen weeks, numerous genetic abnormalities in the fetus can be detected in utero. The tests are routinely administered to women at risk for fetal abnormalities, such as older mothers and those with a family history of genetic disorder. Ultrasound, which is routinely performed throughout most...
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	Research Paper on Moral Status of the Embryo
	Moral Status of the Embryo Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. The philosopher Mary Anne Warren argues for a very strict psychological standard of personhood, defining a person as "a full-fledged member of the moral community" (Warren, 1973, p. 347). Genetic humanity alone isn't sufficient for personhood, according to Warren, so not all human beings are members of the moral community. Warren proposes a set of cognitive criteria that, it is claimed, everyone can and does agree are central to the concept of personhood: consciousness, the developed capacity for reasoning and problem-solving, self-motivated activity, the capacity to communicate, and self-awareness. Beings that satisfy some or all of these criteria are people with a moral claim...
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	Research Paper on Psychological Effects of Abortion
	Psychological Effects of Abortion Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. It is difficult to generalize about the emotional responses of patients to pregnancy termination but, like physical complications, psychological complications may be related to the type of procedure and the gestational age at the time of termination, with earlier suction curettage theoretically leading to fewer psychological complications than later procedures. However, most studies in this area suffer from methodological problems, including a lack of consensus about symptoms, inadequate study design, and lack of adequate followup. Furthermore, the so-called postabortion syndrome does not meet the American Psychiatric Association's definition of trauma (Gold)...
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	Research Paper on Abortion Procedures
	Abortion Procedures Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. The most widespread early-trimester abortion procedure (done between seven and twelve weeks' gestation) is suction curettage, in which a thin plastic tube (canula) is inserted through the cervix and, by negative pressure vacuum, the contents of the uterus are aspirated. Following the aspiration procedure, a curettage (using a sharp, spoonshaped surgical instrument, a curette) is performed to ensure that all fetal tissue has been removed. Complications of suction curettage procedures are rare, and even when they occur, are usually not serious. General anesthesia is considered by many to be an unnecessary additional risk, since local anesthesia, injected into the cervix, often is quite effective (Grimes et al.)...
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	Research Paper on Reproductive and Sexual Health Policy in U.S.
	Reproductive and Sexual Health Policy in U.S. Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Campaigns for and against the legalization of abortion, public health interventions aimed at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS, prosecutions of pregnant women under novel extensions of drug trafficking and child endangerment laws, and debates about the appropriateness of vaccinating teenage girls against the virus that is linked to cervical cancer, each of these examples hints at the breadth of reproductive and sexual health, as well as the intense political struggle with which it is often associated in the United States today. Yet, to understand this area of politics, attention must be paid to historical trends, connections between issues, and how larger power...
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	Research Paper on Abortion and the Women's Movement in 20th Century
	Abortion and the Women's Movement in 20th Century Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Abortion was clearly the issue around which the greatest support in the women's movement was collected in the 1970s. Women marched in their tens of thousands, including many women who otherwise took no active part in the women's-movement activities. Abortion and reproductive technologies have been themes since the nineteenth century. New antiabortion and anticontraception regulations, perceived as necessary to boost populations, were enforced either toward the end of the nineteenth century, or at the beginning of the twentieth. Most western European countries introduced antiabortion laws for the first time in the twentieth century. Antiabortion laws occurred...
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	Research Paper on Abortion in Early Modern Europe
	Abortion in Early Modern Europe Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. Knowledge of effective birth control measures continued to appear in medical, pharmaceutical, and anecdotal accounts, but normally it was carefully circumscribed. Abortifacients were referred to in early modern medical literature as menstrual stimulators. When a woman took an emmenagogue (menstrual stimulant) because of a delayed monthly period due to pregnancy, she would have committed an abortion in modern terms but not in the early modern era. Based on classical Greek concepts, it was thought that the male sperm remained in a woman's body until her womb accepted it and a fetus was formed. This period was not defined but could be a number of weeks...
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	Essay on Abortion Controversy
	Abortion Controversy Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Health. Abortion is a controversial and emotional subject over which people are deeply divided. At this time--the last decade of the twentieth century-compromise between contending factions seems to be impossible because of the passion with which conflicting views are held. Even the terms that partisans of each position use to describe their views bear emotional freight. Anti-abortionists label themselves pro-life; they are not just opposed to abortion, they believe that the fetus is a complete, living person, deserving of legal protection. Those in favor of legalized abortion deny that they are pro abortion, for indeed most believe that abortion is undesirable, even though it is sometimes necessary...
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	Essay on Abortion: Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Moral Arguments
	Abortion: Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Moral Arguments Research Paper, Custom Essays and Term Papers Writing on Abortion. An abortion is the premature termination of pregnancy resulting in the death of any or all carried embryo(s) or fetus(es). In common parlance, the term "abortion" is used exclusively for induced abortion. pregnancy that terminates early, but where the fetus survives to become a live infant, is instead termed a premature birth. A pregnancy that ends with an infant dead upon birth, due to causes such as spontaneous abortion, is termed a stillbirth. Certain forms of birth control are used to prevent implantation before the pregnancy occurs. These acts of emergency contraception are often considered the equivalent of abortion, but are not classified as such in medicine...
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