Constraints On Abortion

The abortion question raises a number of issues that form the core of the abortion debate. Opponents and supporters of abortions have been battling over this particular problem for decades and still cannot come to an agreement. Being one of the most common and most controversial medical procedures, abortion tends to affect people on psychological and sociological levels. But while the discussion of the morality of abortion is an ongoing debate, the social issues surrounding abortion in most cases stay unnoticed. The social aspect of the issue is centered on the abortion policy. The main question of the abortion policy is whether the law should permit abortions and, if so under what circumstances. The other is whether the law should put the life of an unborn child first and legally protect it. The peculiarity of the abortion policy is that its measures are highly dependent on different public opinions.

Kacanek, D., Dennis, A., Miller, K., & Blanchard, K.. (2010). Medicaid Funding for Abortion: Providers' Experiences with Cases Involving Rape, Incest and Life Endangerment. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 42(2), 79–86. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20752621 Copy

Abortion has been a complex social issue in the United States ever since restrictive abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s. By 1965, abortions had been outlawed in the U.S., although they continued illegally; about one million abortions per year were estimated to have occurred in the 1960s. (Krannich 366) Ultimately, in the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, it was ruled that women had the right to privacy and could make an individual choice on whether or not to have an abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. (Yishai 213)

Abortion policy has been shifting throughout American history as American views have simultaneously transitioned from more conservative to more liberal. Doctors, specifically regular physicians, have surprisingly guided the discussion surrounding abortion in the most influential way. Their power, in particular, their medical expertise, has allowed them to take hold of the issue and push against abortion from a medical stance. As a result of the change in traditionalistic views, the power the doctors held for a long time was taken by women, and abortion simultaneously became not an issue of health, but one questioning morality as well as a woman’s right to choose: pro-life and pro-choice. In America, abortion policy has transitioned from an issue of health and morality to one of women’s rights over time due to the power shifting from doctors to women as a result of modernization and the change in how Americans saw religion; this shift in turn impacting how the abortion issue’s sides are defined and how the issue is argued.

Historically, abortion was not regulated in the United States until the 20th century. Prior to the 1900s, abortion occurred regularly and was performed by midwives, along with other reproductive health care procedures (Ehrenreich & English, 2010). The rise of the medical industry and a growing immigrant population led to more interest amongst doctors in restricting abortion (Davis, 1983; Solinger, 2015). The American Medical Association began to lobby for the criminalization of abortion and the medicalization of birth, claiming to be interested in protecting women from the harsh chemicals used to induce abortion (Solinger, 2015). Solinger (2015) writes:

Jill E. Adams  is the founding executive director of the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice at Berkeley Law.  Before joining Berkeley Law she was the executive director of Law Students for Reproductive Justice for six years. She was one of 37 Soldiers of Social Change in San Francisco Magazine’s annual power issue, she is the youngest person to have received the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Fellowship for nonprofit leadership award. This piece is about the legalities of abortions and how the law is regulated and funded for. This

In 2013, North Dakota state legislature passed a slew of regulatory laws with regards to abortion. (Davidson) Once a fetal heartbeat could be detected, abortion was prohibited. An abortion could not be sought solely because of fetal “genetic anomalies.” And, abortions could now only be performed by physicians who possessed admitting privileges at a hospital in the area. This last law threatened Red River Women’s Clinic, the state’s only abortion provider, as the three doctors they employed at the time commuted from Minnesota and Colorado. (Nelson)

A difficult dilemma exists today in the American healthcare system concerning the rights of healthcare and religious institutions, universities with religious affiliation, and private business owners who refuse to provide insurance that covers abortion related services and or medications pertaining to such services. This quandary also encompasses individual practitioners such as physicians and nurses who refuse to participate in this practice. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) now requires contraceptive coverage, and contraceptive counseling for those businesses and practitioners who participate in the Health Insurance Marketplace, (HealthCare.gov, 2016), and in some states, the ACA also requires that

With so many women choosing to have abortions, it would be expected that it would not be so greatly frowned up, yet society is still having problems with its acceptance. Every woman has the fundamental right to decide for herself, free from government interference, whether or not to have an abortion. Today, more than ever, American families do not want the government to trample on their right to privacy by mandating how they must decide on the most intimate, personal matters. That is why, even though Americans may differ on what circumstances for terminating a crisis pregnancy are consistent with their own personal moral views, on the fundamental question of who should make this personal decision, the

The impact is that patients are stigmatized. There are fears that women who want to abort could soon find it difficult to find providers who can assist them. Due to the fact that the issue of abortion is emotive, the society stigmatizes women who seek abortion and doctors who offer it. Such negative atmosphere is likely to deter the provision of reproductive health services. This presents a major dilemma for the nursing professionals (Lopez, 2012).

The issue of abortion is notoriously controversial. Since the Supreme Court’s 1992 ruling in Casey v. Planned Parenthood, states have enacted different restrictions on the procedure. These restrictions vary from state to state. Nineteen states currently have laws prohibiting partial-birth abortion, and forty-one states strictly prohibit abortions except in cases of life-endangerment. One particularly incendiary area of abortion law is that of public funding. However, as of this year there are only seventeen states that cover abortion procedures through public funding. In this paper we will discuss federal abortion legislation, while describing the laws and political ideologies of the following states: Texas, California, New

This chapter has used the experiences of post-Roe abortion providers to highlight the simultaneous preoccupation with fetal life in abortion provision, notwithstanding the seemingly natural conflict between physician and the State interests asserted in Roe. Further, the experiences of post-Roe providers clearly suggest feelings of ambivalence, especially towards second and third trimester abortions, that have not been addressed by Roe’s trimester-framework and seem to be the direct result of abortion providers’ innate interest in fetal life. In addition, the complex experiences of abortion-providing obstetricians suggest that solutions to ‘fetal-life dilemmas’ may fall outside the realm of legal guidelines. Finally, accentuating Roe’s weaknesses

Of all the legal, ethical, and moral issues we Americans continuously fight for or against, abortion may very well be the issue that Americans are most passionate about. The abortion issue is in the forefront of political races. Most recently the “no taxpayer funding for abortion act”, has abortion advocates reeling. Even though abortion has been legal in every state in the United States since the monumental Supreme Court decision, “Roe v Wade”, on January 22, 1973; there are fewer physicians willing to perform abortions today than in 2008. (Kraft) At the heart of the ethical dilemma for many in the medical profession is the viability of the fetus. And just to make this whole dilemma more confusing, according to the United States

Women’s health, specifically abortion, is a pressing health care issue in the nation, as well as globally. I envision my future career as an Obstetrician and Gynecologist (OB/GYN) to be influential in the process of choosing whether or not to have an abortion. Many females making this difficult decision are uninformed and afraid. My part in this process would be to inform the mother-to-be of all her options, encourage, and support her as she makes her decision. As an OB/GYN, I will use my empathy and professionalism to answer difficult questions and put my personal beliefs aside to ensure the welfare of the mother and the child. I want to be able to provide a confidential and comfortable environment for my patient to discuss private and sensitive

In 2008, the World Health Organization estimates over 21 million unsafe abortions have been performed globally. The stigma of abortions has pushed some women into unsafe places to have this procedure. There is an estimate 47,000 deaths each year from unsafe abortions. Some women have gone to the point of taking medicine that self-induces abortions, and then they too worried to seek medical attention when something bad happens. This stigma brings feels such as secrecy, shame, guilt, and fear. According to Culwell and Hurwitz (2013) “Stigma prevents or delays access to safe abortion as well as making lawmakers reluctant to relax restrictive legislation that limits information, funding, services, and training of healthcare providers. Stigma is a societal construct, usually with the purpose of societal control, to punish behavior outside the societal norm” p. S17).