Abortion, termination of pregnancy before the fetus is capable of independent life.
When the expulsion from the
womb occurs after the fetus becomes viable (capable of
independent life), usually at the end of six months of pregnancy, it is technically a
premature birth.
The practice of abortion was widespread in ancient times as a method of birth control.
Later it was restricted or forbidden by most world religions, but it was not considered an
offense in secular law until the 19th century. During that century, first the English
Parliament and then American state legislatures prohibited induced abortion to protect
women from surgical procedures that were at the time unsafe, commonly stipulating a
threat to the woman's life as the sole ("therapeutic") exception to the prohibition.
Occasionally the exception was enlarged to include danger to the mother's health as well.
Legislative action in the 20th century has been aimed at permitting the termination
of unwanted pregnancies for medical, social, or private reasons.
Gestational age may determine which abortion metho...
Soviet poster circa 1925. Title translation: "Abor...
CDC chart on the number of abortions in the United...Abortions at the woman's
request were first allowed by the Soviet Union in 1920, followed by Japan and several
East European nations after World War II. In the late 1960s liberalized abortion
regulations became widespread. The impetus for the change was threefold: (1) infanticide
and the high maternal death rate associated with illegal abortions, (2) a rapidly expanding
world population, (3) the growing feminist movement. By 1980, countries where
abortions were permitted only to save a woman's life contained about 20 percent of the
world's population. Countries with moderately restrictive laws--abortions permitted to
protect a woman's health, to end pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, to avoid
genetic or congenital defects, or in response to social problems such as unmarried status
or inadequate income--contained some 40 percent of the world's population. Abortions at
the woman's request, usually with limits...