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Wikipedia collaborators. (2011). Abortion in the

United States. [Fragment]. In Wikipedia. The
free enciclopedia. Retrieved July 5, 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_Uni
ted_States

ABORTION IN THE UNITED STATES

Abortion in the United States has been legal in every state since the United
States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, on January 22, 1973. Prior to
"Roe", there were exceptions to the abortion ban in at least 10 states; "Roe"
established that a woman has a right to self-determination (often referred to as
a "right to privacy") covering the decision whether or not to carry a pregnancy to
term, but that this right must be balanced against a state's interest in preserving
fetal life.

Roe established a "trimester" system of increasing state interest in the life of the
fetus corresponding to the fetus's increasing "viability" (likelihood of survival
outside the uterus) over the course of a pregnancy, such that states were
prohibited from banning abortion early in pregnancy but allowed to impose
increasing restrictions or outright bans later in pregnancy. That decision was
modified by the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the
"central holding" in Roe that there is a fundamental right to privacy
encompassing the decision about abortion, but replacing the trimester system
with the point of fetal viability (whenever it may occur) as defining a state's right
to override the woman's autonomy. Casey also lowered the legal standard to
which states would be held in justifying restrictions imposed on a woman's
rights; Roe had held this to be "strict scrutiny" - the traditional Supreme Court
test for impositions upon fundamental Constitutional rights - whereas Casey
created a new standard referring to "undue burden", specifically to balance the
state's and the woman's interests in the case of abortion.
Before Roe v. Wade, abortion was legal in several areas of the country, but that
decision imposed a uniform framework for state legislation on the subject, and
established a minimal period during which abortion must be legal (under greater
or lesser degrees of restriction throughout the pregnancy). That basic
framework, modified in Casey, remains nominally in place, although the
effective availability of abortion varies significantly from state to state. Abortion
remains one of the most controversial topics in United States culture and
politics.

Terminology

In medical terms, the word abortion refers to any pregnancy that does not end
in a live birth, and therefore can refer to a miscarriage or a premature birth that
does not result in a live infant. Such events are often called spontaneous
abortions if they occur before 20 weeks of gestation. In common parlance,
however, abortion is used to mean "induced abortion" of an embryo or fetus at
any point in pregnancy, and this is also how the term is used in a legal sense.

History

Abortion before Roe

There were few laws on abortion in the United States at the time of
independence, except the English common law adopted into United States law
by Acts of Reception, which held abortion to be legally acceptable if occurring
before quickening. James Wilson, a framer of the U.S. Constitution, explained
as follows:

“ With consistency, beautiful and undeviating, human life, from its

commencement to its close, is protected by the common law. In the
contemplation of law, life begins when the infant is first able to stir in the womb.
By the law, life is protected not only from immediate destruction, but from every
degree of actual violence, and, in some cases, from every degree of danger.
”
Various anti-abortion statutes began to appear in the 1820s. In 1821,
Connecticut passed a statute targeting apothecaries who sold poisons to
women for purposes of abortion, and New York made post-quickening abortions
a felony and pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor eight years later. It is
sometimes argued that the early American abortion statutes were motivated not
by ethical concerns about abortion but by worry about the safety of the
procedure; however, some legal theorists believe that this theory is inconsistent
with the fact that abortion was punishable regardless of whether any harm befell
the pregnant woman and the fact that many of the early statutes punished not
only the doctors or abortionists, but also punished the women who hired them.

The criminalization movement accelerated during the 1860s, and by 1900

abortion was largely illegal in every state. Some states did include provisions
allowing for abortion in limited circumstances, generally to protect the woman's
life or pregnancies due to rape or incest. Abortions continued to occur, however,
and increasingly became readily available. Illegal abortions were often unsafe,
sometimes resulting in death, as in the case of Gerri Santoro of Connecticut in
1964.

Some activist groups developed their own skills to provide abortions to women
who could not obtain them elsewhere. As an example, in Chicago, a group
known as "Jane" operated a floating abortion clinic throughout much of the
1960s. Women seeking the procedure would call a designated number and be
given instructions on how to find "Jane".

In 1965, following the Supreme Court’s decision in Griswold v. Connecticut

declaring a constitutional right to contraceptives, the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued a medical bulletin accepting a
recommendation from 6 years earlier which clarified that conception is
implantation, not fertilization. This had the consequence of categorizing birth
control methods that prevented implantation as contraceptives, not
abortifacients.

In 1967, Colorado became the first state to legalize abortion in cases of rape,
incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the
woman. Similar laws were passed in California, Oregon, and North Carolina. In
1970, New York repealed its 1830 law and allowed abortions up to the 24th
week of pregnancy. Similar laws were soon passed in Alaska, Hawaii, and
Washington. A law in Washington, DC, which allowed abortion to protect the life
or health of the woman, was challenged in the Supreme Court in 1971 in United
States v. Vuitch. The court upheld the law, deeming that "health" meant
"psychological and physical well-being," essentially allowing abortion in
Washington, DC. By the end of 1972, 13 states had a law similar to that of
Colorado, while Mississippi allowed abortion in cases of rape or incest only and
Alabama and Massachusetts allowed abortions only in cases where the
womans's physical health was endangered. In order to obtain abortions during
this period, women would often travel from a state where abortion was illegal to
states where it was legal.

Roe v. Wade

The United States Supreme Court membership in 1973.

In deciding Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruled that a Texas statute
forbidding abortion except when necessary to save the life of the mother was
unconstitutional. The Court arrived at its decision by concluding that the issue of
abortion and abortion rights falls under the right to privacy. In its opinion it listed
several landmark cases where the court had previously found a right to privacy
implied by the Constitution. The Court did not recognize a right to abortion in all
cases:

State regulation protective of fetal life after viability thus has both logical and
biological justifications. If the State is interested in protecting fetal life after
viability, it may go so far as to proscribe abortion during that period, except
when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.[5]

The Court held that a right to privacy existed and included the right to have an
abortion. The court found that a mother had a right to abortion until viability, a
point to be determined by the abortion doctor. After viability a woman can obtain
an abortion for health reasons, which the Court defined broadly to include
psychological well-being.

A central issue in the Roe case (and in the wider abortion debate in general) is
whether human life or personhood begins at conception, birth, or at some point
in between. The Court declined to make an attempt at resolving this issue,
noting: "We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When
those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology
are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the
development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the
answer." Instead, it chose to point out that historically, under English and
American common law and statutes, "the unborn have never been recognized
...as persons in the whole sense" and thus the fetuses are not legally entitled to
the protection afforded by the right to life specifically enumerated in the
Fourteenth Amendment. So rather than asserting that human life begins at any
specific point, the court simply declared that the State has a "compelling
interest" in protecting "potential life" at the point of viability.

Jane Roe and Mary Doe

"Jane Roe" of the landmark Roe v. Wade lawsuit, whose real name is Norma
McCorvey, is now a pro-life advocate. McCorvey writes that she never had the
abortion and became the "pawn" of two young and ambitious lawyers who were
looking for a plaintiff who they could use to challenge the Texas state law
prohibiting abortion. However, attorney Linda Coffee says she doesn't
remember McCorvey having any hesitancy about wanting an abortion.[6]

"Mary Doe" of the companion Doe v. Bolton lawsuit, the mother of three whose
real name is Sandra Cano, maintains that she never wanted or had an abortion
and that she is "ninety-nine percent certain that [she] did not sign" the affidavit
to initiate the suit.[7]

Later judicial decisions

The 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey overturned Roe's strict

trimester formula, but reemphasized the right to abortion as grounded in the
general sense of liberty and privacy protected under the Due Process Clause of
the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution: "If the right of
privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be
free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally
affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child."
Advancements in medical technology meant that a fetus might be considered
viable, and thus have some basis of a right to life, at 22 or 23 weeks rather than
at the 28 that was more common at the time Roe was decided.

The Supreme Court continues to grapple with cases on the subject. On April 18,
2007 it issued a ruling in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart, involving a Federal
law entitled the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 which President George
W. Bush had signed into law. The United States Supreme Court upheld the
2003 partial-birth abortion ban by a narrow majority of 5-4. The law stipulated
that anyone breaking the law would get a prison sentence up to 2.5 years. The
Supreme Court voted to uphold the national ban on the procedure opponents
call "partial-birth abortion" (called intact dilation and extraction by the medical
community), marking the first time the court has allowed a ban on any type of
abortion since 1973. The swing vote, which came from moderate justice
Anthony Kennedy, was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas,
and the two recent appointees, Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.

Current legal situation

Nationwide

Since 1995, led by Congressional Republicans, the U.S. House of

Representatives and U.S. Senate have moved several times to pass measures
banning the procedure of intact dilation and extraction, also commonly known
as partial birth abortion. After several long and emotional debates on the issue,
such measures passed twice by wide margins, but President Bill Clinton vetoed
those bills in April 1996 and October 1997 on the grounds that they did not
include health exceptions. Congressional supporters of the bill argue that a
health exception would render the bill unenforceable, since the Doe v. Bolton
decision defined "health" in vague terms, justifying any motive for obtaining an
abortion. Subsequent Congressional attempts at overriding the veto were
unsuccessful.

On October 2, 2003, with a vote of 281-142, the House again approved a

measure banning the procedure, called the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.
Through this legislation, a doctor could face up to two years in prison and face
civil lawsuits for performing such an abortion. A mother who undergoes the
procedure cannot be prosecuted under the measure. The measure contains an
exemption to allow the procedure if the mother's life is threatened. On October
21, 2003, the United States Senate passed the same bill by a vote of 64-34,
with a number of Democrats joining in support. The bill was signed by President
George W. Bush on November 5, 2003, but a federal judge blocked its
enforcement in several states just a few hours after it became public law. The
Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on the procedure in the case
Gonzales v. Carhart on April 18, 2007, signaling a substantial change in the
Court's approach to abortion law. The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion
Ban Act does not conflict with previous Court decisions regarding abortion.

The current judicial interpretation of the U.S. Constitution regarding abortion in

the United States, following the Supreme Court of the United States's 1973
landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, and subsequent companion decisions, is
that abortion is legal but may be restricted by the states to varying degrees.
States have passed laws to restrict late term abortions, require parental
notification for minors, and mandate the disclosure of abortion risk information
to patients prior to the procedure.

The key, deliberated article of the U.S. Constitution is the Fourteenth

Amendment, which states that

“ All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein
they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ”
The official report of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, issued in 1983 after
extensive hearings on the Human Life Amendment (proposed by Senators Orrin
Hatch and Thomas Eagleton), stated what substantially remains true today:

“ Thus, the [Judiciary] Committee observes that no significant legal

barriers of any kind whatsoever exist today in the United States for a mother to
obtain an abortion for any reason during any stage of her pregnancy. ”

One aspect of the legal abortion regime now in place has been determining
when the fetus is "viable" outside the womb as a measure of when the "life" of
the fetus is its own (and therefore subject to being protected by the state). In the
majority opinion delivered by the court in Roe v. Wade, viability was defined as
"potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid.
Viability is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur
earlier, even at 24 weeks." When the court ruled in 1973, the then-current
medical technology suggested that viability could occur as early as 24 weeks.
Advances over the past three decades have allowed fetuses that are a few
weeks less than 24 weeks old to survive outside the mother's womb. These
scientific achievements, while life-saving for premature babies, have made the
determination of being "viable" somewhat more complicated. As of 2006, the
youngest child to survive a premature birth in the United States was a girl born
at the Baptist Hospital of Miami at 21 weeks and 6 days' gestational age.

In comparison to other developed countries, the procedure is more available in

the United States in terms of how late the abortion can legally be performed.
However, in terms of other aspects such as government funding, privacy for
non-adults, or geographical access, some U.S. states are far more restrictive. In
most of Europe, elective abortions are only allowed up to 12 weeks (18 weeks
in Sweden, 21 weeks in the Netherlands, 24 weeks in Great Britain). In France,
unless the fetus is severely deformed or the mother's health is directly at risk,
any abortion after the first twelve weeks is illegal. In many countries the right to
abortion has been legalized by respective parliaments, while in the U.S. the
right to abortion has been deemed a part of a constitutional right to privacy by
the Supreme Court.
Because of the split between federal and state law, legal access to abortion
continues to vary somewhat by state. Geographic availability, however, varies
dramatically, with 87 percent of U.S. counties having no abortion provider.[13]
Moreover, due to the Hyde Amendment, many state health programs which
poor women rely on for their health care do not cover abortions; currently 17
states (including California, Illinois and New York) offer or require such
coverage.

The legality of abortion in the United States is frequently a major issue in

nomination battles for the U.S. Supreme Court. However, nominees typically
remain silent on the issue during their hearings, because it is an issue that may
come before them as judges.

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act, commonly known as "Laci and Conner's
Law" was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush on April
1, 2004, allowing two charges to be filed against someone who kills a pregnant
mother (one for the mother and one for the fetus). It specifically bans charges
against the mother and/or doctor relating to abortion procedures. Nevertheless,
it has generated much controversy among pro-choice advocates. They view it
as a potential step in the direction of banning abortion.

State-by-state legal status

Various states have passed legislation on the subject of feticide. On March 6,

2006, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds signed into law a pro-life statute
which made performing abortions a felony, and that law was subsequently
repealed in a November 7, 2006 referendum. On February 27, 2006,
Mississippi’s House Public Health Committee voted to approve a ban on
abortion, and that bill died after the House and Senate failed to agree on
compromise legislation. Several states have enacted "trigger laws" which
"would take effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned." North Dakota HB 1572 or the
Personhood of Children Act, which passed the North Dakota House of
Representatives on February 18, 2009, but was later defeated in the North
Dakota Senate, aimed to allocate rights to "the pre-born, partially born", and if
passed, would likely have been used to challenge Roe v. Wade.
Number of abortions in United States

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), since 1973, roughly 50
million legal induced abortions have been performed in the United States.

Mifepristone/RU-486

The use of the abortifacient Mifepristone is reported by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention as a "medical (nonsurgical) procedures" in the abortion
surveillance reports. Medical nonsurgical abortions voluntarily reported to the
CDC by 47 states (excluding California, Louisiana, and New Hampshire) as a
percentage of total abortions in the United States have increased every year
since the approval of Mifepristone: 1.0% in 2000, 2.9% in 2001, 5.2% in 2002,
7.9% in 2003, 9.3% in 2004, 9.9% in 2005, 10.6% in 2006, 13.1% in 2007,
(15.9% of those at less than 9 weeks gestation).[22] A Guttmacher Institute
survey of abortion providers estimated that medical nonsurgical abortions
accounted for 13% of total abortions in the United States in 2005.

Abortions and ethnicity

Abortion rates are much more common among minority women in the U.S. In
2000-2001, the rates among black and Hispanic women were 49 per 1,000 and
33 per 1,000, respectively, vs. 13 per 1,000 among non-Hispanic white women.
Note that this figure includes all women of reproductive age, including women
that are not pregnant. In other words, these abortion rates reflect the rate at
which U.S. women of reproductive age have an abortion each year.

In 2004, the rates of abortion by ethnicity in the U.S. were 50 abortions per
1,000 black women, 28 abortions per 1,000 Hispanic women, and 11 abortions
per 1,000 white women.

Reasons for abortions

In 2000, cases of rape or incest accounted for 1% of abortions.[26] Another

study, in 1998, revealed that in 1987-1988 women reported the following
reasons for choosing an abortion:
25.5% Want to postpone childbearing

21.3% Cannot afford a baby

14.1% Has relationship problem or partner does not want pregnancy

12.2% Too young; parent(s) or other(s) object to pregnancy

10.8% Having a child will disrupt education or job

7.9% Want no (more) children

3.3% Risk to fetal health

2.8% Risk to maternal health

2.1% Other

According to a 1987 study that included specific data about late abortions (i.e.
abortions “at 16 or more weeks' gestation”), women reported that various
reasons contributed to their having a late abortion:

71% Woman didn't recognize she was pregnant or misjudged gestation

48% Woman found it hard to make arrangements for abortion

33% Woman was afraid to tell her partner or parents

24% Woman took time to decide to have an abortion

8% Woman waited for her relationship to change

8% Someone pressured woman not to have abortion

6% Something changed after woman became pregnant

6% Woman didn't know timing is important

5% Woman didn't know she could get an abortion

2% A fetal problem was diagnosed late in pregnancy

11% Other.