Abortion

Abortion

Introduction

Abortion, both legal and illegal, has long been part of life in the United States. Indeed, the legal status of abortion has passed through several distinct phases in U.S. history. Generally permitted at the nation's founding and for several decades thereafter, the procedure was made illegal under most circumstances in most states beginning in the mid-1800s. In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court set new judicial precedent and generated contentious political response by recognizing a woman's right to have an abortion[1]. The Court held, 7-2, that a Texas anti-abortion law violated the privacy right found in the concept of personal liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The invalidated law made it a crime to procure an abortion, defined as destroying the life of the fetus or embryo in the woman's womb, or to attempt an abortion except when necessary to save the mother's life.

Definition

Abortion is, by definition, “feticide.” As Naomi Wolf (1995) notes in developing her argument that the pro-choice movement needs to frame its defense of abortion rights morally, “The death of a fetus is a real death” (p. 26). Is abortion “homicide” or simply a “reproductive health procedure”? Consider the bias of the term unborn child[1]. Pollitt (1997) points out that the terminology of theabortion debate became polarized over the 20-year period of her study. Pollitt's content analysis of articles on abortion shows that the proportions of references to “unborn child,” “unborn infant,” and “unborn baby” in sources associated with the pro-life movement increased during this period. Similarly, references to “fetus,” “embryo,” and “egg” increased in sources associated with the pro-choice movement during the period.[2]

From these framings and attributions, some extreme analogies have emerged. Some observers have likened abortion to the Holocaust. One commentator has written that the “denial of abortion is like forcing a person to spend nine months intravenously hooked up to a medically endangered stranger who happens to be a famous violinist”. Seeking legitimacy, pro-choice advocates have cited evidence of biblical approval of abortion. Pro-life proponents have countered with quotations from early, well-known feminists who abhorred the practice.

The Shifting Battle Lines

Like players in a game of chess, both sides in the abortion debate have strategically employed wide-ranging ethical issues to legitimate their moral positions and to neutralize the claims of the other[3]. Over time, both sides have expanded their focus to proclaim abortion's effects on the moral order of the broader culture. Anti-abortionists have developed slippery-slope theses, arguing that the availability of legal abortion increases sexual permissiveness and godlessness and diminishes respect for human life. By contrast, pro-choice proponents have asserted that abortion restrictions are patriarchal tools of oppression.

The issue has expanded into debates concerning sex education, sexual abstinence, birth control[4], and even AIDS. It has also produced violence and death. According to the National Abortion Federation, between 1977 and 1998 there were more than 1,700 attacks against abortion providers in the United States and at least 6 fatal ...