Top Research Papers on Abortion

For most of the last 35 years, Canada has stood alone as a global exception to the criminalization of abortion. Following the 1988 Supreme Court decision in R. v. Morgentaler, which deemed the existing federal abortion law unconstitutional, Canada has operated without criminal restrictions on abortion. Despite the distinctive nature of Canada's approach, there is a dearth of scholarly work that has explicitly traced the process through which abortion decriminalization materialized and offered an in-depth examination of its effectiveness. This paper aims to address this gap in two ways. First, ...

This article conceptualise abortion exceptionalism – the singling out of abortion from other areas of medicine on the grounds that it is special, different, or more complex or risky than is empirically justified – as a mode of ‘stigma-in-action’, arguing that medical curricula are powerful sites for its reproduction and undoing.

The findings suggest that current laws criminalizing abortion are misaligned with public opinion and that pregnant women and healthcare providers are likely most susceptible to abortion-related stigma.

Abortion was legalised in Turkey in 1983 with a 10-week limit, restrictions on who could provide abortions, and spousal or parental consent requirements. Currently, although abortion is legal, because of structural barriers, access is restricted (O'Neil, Altuntaş, and Keskin 2020). This study aimed to investigate how women strategically mobilise their social networks to overcome such restrictions to abortion care. Drawing from 25 in-depth interviews with urban-educated cis-women aged 24-30, I identify three groups within abortion networks: included, excluded and ambiguous. While included group...

Abstract A deprivation of women’s reproductive rights has occurred by the right-wing turn in recent United States’ politics. Looking at the details of Roe v. Wade, (1973), and Dobbs (2022), the author notes the limited legal, but predominantly emotional, thinking in the Supreme Court’s opinions that led to the overturn. The contemporary legal coup is seen here as yet another age-old attempt to control the female body’s reproductive powers and capacities. Using an example, the author notes the unconscious male fear of female’s bodily self-governance that inhibits any empathy for “the other.” Sh...

A newer regimen that, based on scientific studies, has been shown to be just as effective while using less medication, resulting in fewer side effects and requiring fewer visits to the provider.

Ontario midwives’ general attitudes towards abortion and willingness to incorporate abortion into the midwifery scope of practice were surveyed, and the current models of compensation and practice in Ontario, issues related to hospital integration, and opposition from clients were identified as significant barriers to the provision of abortion services.

The persistent conversation among doctors about abortion and their own practices and techniques of performing what they called “therapeutic abortion”— induced when the physician believed that pregnancy threatened the life or health of the woman is discovered.

The abortion rates declined as travel distance to an abortion care facility increased, and modeling suggests the need for abortion care can be only partially met through service delivery innovations.

An extensive summary of abortion indicators used over 10 years (2008–2018) is provided to inform the debate on how progress in the provision and access to abortion care can be best captured.

On a preventable crisis in global abortion care, Sally Howard reports on the rising number of vulnerable women most likely to need a later stage abortion.

This cohort study investigates the association between distance to the nearest abortion facility and abortion and pregnancy outcome among individuals seeking abortion care and information online.

Abortion pill reversal (APR) treatment aims to halt an initiated medical abortion, wherein a pregnant woman takes progesterone after having taken the first of the two consecutive abortion pills, typically because she has changed her mind and no longer wants to abort the pregnancy. It is a controversial intervention, generally supported by those identifying as pro-life and opposed by those identifying as pro-choice. This paper examines whether, in principle, those identifying with the pro-choice view should support APR. We firstly examine the commitments of the pro-choice stance. We then briefl...

The abortion incidence between 1990 and 2014: global, regional, and subregional levels and trends and trends, The Lancet, 2016, http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30380-4/abstract

This paper argues that if the authors assume fetuses are persons, then abortion is a public health crisis that justifies overriding a gestational mother's rights and compelling her to carry the fetus to term, but dawdle addressing greater public health crises like spontaneous abortion and hunger.

Cohen et al. review the new development of abortion shield laws, which some abortion-supportive states have passed to protect physicians from attempts by states with abortion bans to enforce their laws beyond their borders.

This paper explores the misogynistic abuse against female Chilean politicians who openly supported a pro-choice bill that allowed the access to abortion in limited circumstances. We analysed the verbal abuse targeted at these politicians during the legislation of the abortion bill (2015–2017) and the linguistic and discursive patterns of online abuse. To that end, we collected tweets from this legislation period and created a subset with specific milestones of the parliamentary debate. Further, we undertook a corpus-assisted analysis of the data, focusing on collocations and keywords, wh...

The history and regulatory landscape of telemedicine for medication abortion in the United States, different models of care, and the safety and effectiveness of medication abortion via telemedics are discussed, including using history-based screening protocols for medicationabortion without ultrasound are discussed.

In-depth interviews with 46 individuals working in a range of positions in 46 abortion clinics across 29 states resulted in themes shaped by beliefs about safety and autonomy, and a tension between the two: that self-managed abortion is too great a risk, that people are capable of self-managing an abortion, and that people have a right to a self- managed abortion.

Abstract In both what has and has not been published in the psychoanalytic literature about abortion, those who elect abortion have been devalued. The omission of abortion perpetuates its sense of unimportance in our field. Where it features, it is relegated to a category of conflict colored by pathology and trauma. To the contrary, abortion can be experienced as a generative event. Interviews with ten women who underwent abortion reveal important themes that are underrepresented in existing theory. These women offered windows into their lives both before and after their abortions in a way tha...

A case for improving women's reproductive autonomy in decision-making is made - highlighting the social and mental health consequences of restricted access to abortion, and the importance of taking a holistic approach to addressing the sexual health of young women, by focusing not only on physical health but also on ensuring wellbeing.

This Viewpoint discusses the history behind the right to physical and mental health in the US and the right to receive care during medical emergencies under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, and argues that abortion is health care.

The abortion infodemic threatens to worsen the detrimental effects of the Roe v. Wade reversal on maternal morbidity and mortality and is being exacerbated by a confusing and rapidly changing legislative landscape, the proliferation of abortion disinformants on the web, lax efforts by social media companies to abate abortion misinformation, and proposed legislation that threatens to prohibit the distribution of evidence-based abortion information.

The UK is usually viewed as having liberal abortion regulations, providing good access to abortion care within a publicly funded health service. However, the underlying laws are authoritarian, dating from an era when public executions drew large crowds and 67 years before women were able to vote. Abortion is only legal when two doctors certify it meets the permitted grounds, and the penalty for self‐managed abortion is up to life imprisonment for both the woman and any accomplice. These laws had prevented the use of mifepristone and misoprostol at home. Changes to the regulations for misoprost...

We examine racial differentials in abortion among women in Brazil using data from three editions of the Brazilian National Abortion Survey (PNA), 2016, 2019 and 2021. We test the difference in means in data from separate surveys, combined surveys without reweighting, and combined and reweighted surveys. We also use logistic models for the chance of having an abortion. The results indicate that there is a consistent racial differential in the three editions of PNA, with the percentage of abortions among Black women being higher than among white women. In the combined and reweighted surveys, amo...

Abstract We examine racial differentials in abortion among women in Brazil using data from three editions of the Brazilian National Abortion Survey (PNA), 2016, 2019 and 2021. We test the difference in means in data from separate surveys, combined surveys without reweighting, and combined and reweighted surveys. We also use logistic models for the chance of having an abortion. The results indicate that there is a consistent racial differential in the three editions of PNA, with the percentage of abortions among Black women being higher than among white women. In the combined and reweighted sur...

A central tenet of the liberal tradition in political philosophy is that citizens must be able to relate to one another as equals. I argue that this commitment to what has been called democratic equality is in tension with legal prohibitions on abortion prior to fetal viability. The most minimal commitment of democratic equality is equality before the law, which requires that the state treat like cases alike. My primary argument focuses on showing how this requirement cannot be reconciled with restrictive abortion laws given the other laws and practices common in liberal democracies. This is s...

The criminalization of abortion in Poland, particularly following the Anti-Abortion Law of 1993, has sparked significant legal, ethical, and international debate. This paper explores the issue through a comprehensive analysis of Poland's legislative framework, the ethical implications of its restrictive abortion policies, and the consequences for women's mental and physical well-being. The legal framework, including the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental EU Rights, is assessed to highlight the violations of women's rights to autonomy, health, equality, and digni...

This qualitative phenomenological study analyses data from 19 interviews with people who travelled at least 25 miles for abortion after the first trimester to understand structural factors influencing travel, and identify strategies to improve travel.

For over a century, abortion has been politically and socially contested, affecting people's lives through personal experience and/or public discourse. In the United States (US), abortion is sometimes exceptional—treated differently from other procedures, professions, and political issues—and sometimes an exemplar—an accessible example of a commonly occurring social, political, or personal phenomenon. It is, in other words, an excellent sociological case study. Yet the sociological literature on abortion is relatively thin. In this essay, we review research on abortion and opportunities for fu...

This study highlights the need to understand more fully the rationale behind the high level of support for abortion in the medical practice that is provided in these clinics.

Delays underpinned by economic factors can thwart care-seeking, affect the type of care sought, and impact the gestational age at which care is sought or reached.

The effectiveness and safety outcomes of medication abortion performed without prior pelvic examination or ultrasonogram are summarized, showing it is a safe and effective option for pregnancy termination.

The Abortion Act 1967 may be the most contested law in UK history, sitting on a fault line between the shifting tectonic plates of a rapidly transforming society. While it has survived repeated calls for its reform, with its text barely altered for over five decades, women's experiences of accessing abortion services under it have evolved considerably. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews, this book explores how the Abortion Act was given meaning by a diverse cast of actors including women seeking access to services, doctors and service providers, campaigners, judges, lawyers,...

This paper offers a brief historical overview of the relationship of abortion provision and mainstream medicine, and turns to interviews with 40 physicians who provide abortions about their perspectives on SSMA to explore how this group responds to the contradictions presented by SSMA.

Importance Abortion bans may lead to births among those who are unable to overcome barriers to abortion. The population-level effects of these policies, particularly their unequal impacts across subpopulations in the US, remain unclear. Objective To assess heterogeneity in the association of abortion bans with changes in fertility in the US, within and across states. Design, Setting, and Participants Drawing from birth certificate and US Census Bureau data from 2012 through 2023 for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, this study used a bayesian panel data model to evaluate state-by...

Our study aimed to compare the systemic immune inflammation index (SII), one of the hematological inflammation parameters, between pregnant women diagnosed with threatened abortion (TA) and healthy pregnant women, and to evaluate the prediction of abortion in pregnant women with TA.

Guided by the Reasoned Action Approach, we used a salient belief elicitation (SBE) to elicit participant‐generated beliefs regarding abortion. SBE is a formative research technique used to elicit people's control (i.e., perceived facilitators and barriers associated with a behavior), behavioral (i.e., perceived positive and negative consequences of doing a behavior), and normative (i.e., influence of important people/peers regarding a behavior) beliefs regarding a particular behavior (i.e., abortion).We administered our SBE to English‐ and Spanish‐speaking U.S. adults (N = 608) from NORC's Ame...

The recommendations for selfmanagement of medical abortion in the new WHO guidelines have the potential to transform abortion access if international bodies, governments, and health systems expand the availability of abortion pills and access to trained support.

The decades-long campaign to increase access to abortion pills in the United States, including advocates' work to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone and misoprostol for abortion, and the multiple strategies advocates have pursued to challenge these restrictions are examined.

The discursive construction of abortions, the people who get them, and fetuses in this legislation investigates, highlighting the vulnerability of abortion and the connection between abortion policy and other conservative policy, and gesture towards a strategic attempt to federally ban abortion.

This datasheet on enzootic abortion of ewes covers Identity, Overview, Associated Diseases, Pests or Pathogens, Distribution, Hosts/Species Affected, Further Information.

This research examines the perception of secondary level girl students on abortion and abortion services in the context of Nepal. This study employs primary data obtained from 250 adolescent girl students of community schools and bases on descriptive research design using quantitative method. The result reveals that 90 percent of the girl students possess the information of abortion and abortion services while only 80 percent of them have its legal knowledge. Nearly 87 percent of girl students of community schools show their awareness on safe abortion services while remaining others do not hav...

Abortion rates decreased from 2012 to 2021 among all age groups, except women aged 30–34 years for whom it increased, and abortion ratios increased among women aged 15–29 years and decreased among adolescents aged <15 years and women aged ≥30 years.

The purpose of this article is to provide a foundation for caring for individuals before, during, and after second-trimester abortion.

The frequency of death from miscarriage is very high, greater than the number of deaths from induced abortion or major diseases.  Berg (2017, Philosophical Studies 174:1217-26) argues that, given this, those who contend that personhood begins at conception (PAC) are obliged to reorient their resources accordingly-towards stopping miscarriage, in preference to stopping abortion or diseases. This argument depends on there being a basic moral similarity between these deaths. I argue that, for those that hold to PAC, there are good reasons to think that there is no such similarity. There is a mora...

Local abortion assistance funds worked with Texas callers to co‐create person‐centered plans for care and expanded inter‐organization collaborations, and Initiatives that bolster local assistance funds' infrastructure and capacity will be needed as the abortion access landscape becomes further restricted and complex.

This Viewpoint discusses the specific concerns for psychiatrists about the impact of abortion restrictions on people with mental illness.

Georgia’s law limiting abortion to early pregnancy would eliminate access to abortion for nearly 90% of patients in Georgia and disproportionately harm patients who are Black, younger, and in lower socioeconomic status groups.

It is posit that an abortion ban would mean that anyone who becomes pregnant, including those who continue a pregnancy and give birth to healthy newborns and those with pregnancy complications or adverse pregnancy outcomes will become newly vulnerable to legal surveillance, civil detentions, forced interventions, and criminal prosecution.