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Abortion

The term abortion is defined as an induced or spontaneous expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus of a pregnant woman. In the United States, abortion refers to a medical procedure that terminates a pregnancy, while spontaneous abortions are more commonly called miscarriages. This entry explores the procedures and political controversies of abortion and the abortion debate as generally understood in the United States.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court granted women the right to obtain “safe and legal abortions” in the landmark case, Roe v. Wade. A woman's right to abort a pregnancy was designated a right to privacy protected under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Under Roe v. Wade, women may seek legal abortions at any time during the first and second trimester of pregnancy, and in the third trimester (or after a fetus becomes viable) only if the life or health of a woman or fetus is in danger. Thirty-five years after Roe v. Wade, abortion remains a divisive issue in present-day politics and society. Contemporary women's rights advocates often focus energies on the preservation of abortion rights, while politically conservative—and often religious—groups work to hinder access of abortion services available to women. Political parties and government officials commonly run campaigns that include speaking out in support of or in opposition to legal abortion.

The National Abortion Federation estimates that annually, 1.3 million U.S. women terminate their pregnancies through surgical or medical abortion and approximately 35 percent of American women will have an abortion in their lifetimes. The World Health Organization estimates that 50 million abortions are performed globally each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that about 88 percent of abortions occur during the first trimester and approximately 98 percent of abortions take place in the first half of a woman's pregnancy.

Surgical Abortions

Surgical abortions are the safest and most common type of abortion procedure. Surgical abortions, known to medical professionals as dilation and extraction (D&X) or dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortions, are performed by using a series of dilators to open the cervix and inserting a small tube or curette attached to a vacuum aspirator, which removes the contents of the uterus. Surgical abortions can be performed at any time during a woman's pregnancy. The CDC maintains that surgical abortions are safe and effective medical procedures, safer even than giving birth after carrying a pregnancy to term. They state that “less than one in 100 abortions results in serious complications, and less than one in 100,000 abortions have complications that result in death.” Common complications following surgical abortions include infections (typically treated with antibiotics), incomplete abortions or the formation of blood clots requiring follow-up aspiration procedures, and perforation of the uterine wall.

D&X procedures and “intact” D&E procedures performed during the late-second and third trimesters are best known in contemporary culture as partial-birth abortions, a term coined by abortion opponents. Such procedures require a doctor to collapse the head of a fetus before bringing it into the birth canal for aspiration. Though abortion doctors have argued this to be the safest procedure for women undergoing late-second and third trimester abortions, abortion foes maintain that the procedure is inhumane. In 2000, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Stenberg v. Carhart to review a partial-birth abortion ban proposed in Nebraska and found it unconstitutional, as it lacked exceptions for cases in which a woman's health or life was in danger. Despite this, President George W. Bush signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban of 2003 without provisions for health exceptions. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the updated ban in Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., making the procedure illegal in the United States.

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