Abortion in the US: Barriers to access

Reproductive Health Matters

Volumn 5, Issue 9, 1997, Pages 37-45

  Fried, Marlene Gerber ^a  

^a HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ABORTION; ARTICLE; HEALTH CARE ACCESS; INDUCED ABORTION; JUSTICE; LAW; PRIORITY JOURNAL; UNITED STATES;

EID: 0030796159     PISSN: 09688080     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/s0968-8080(97)90004-5     Document Type: Article

References (17)

1. This is a method in which the fetus is given an injection so that it dies in the womb. Fluid is then removed from the cranium as this is the only way to bring the head out without causing tears or bleeding in the woman's cervix, and the fetus is removed intact. This method is rare to the extent that the overwhelming majority of abortions are performed in the first trimester. It is used in the third trimester of pregnancy when the life of the pregnant women is at risk, or in cases of serious fetal anomaly. It may also be used from 20-24 weeks of pregnancy if a doctor determines that it is the best procedure to use in the circumstances. This procedure is also referred to as 'D and X'. The anti-abortion movement call the procedure 'partial birth' abortion and have portrayed it as infanticide. Although the US Congress may vote to ban this method, courts in the US have said that the following determinations may not be made by legislatures but must be left to the physician attending a woman: when a particular fetus is viable, which abortion method is appropriate to use in specific circumstances, and what constitutes a threat to a partieular woman's life or health. See Late Term Abortions: Legal Considerations. Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York 1997.
2. Lerner S and Freedman J, 1994. Abortion and health care reform. Journal of American Medical Women's Association (JAMWA). 49(5):144.
3. Donovan P, 1995. The Politics of Blame: Family Planning, Abortion and the Poor. Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York.
4. Donovan, in [3] above, points out that even before the Hyde Amendment, not all women in need of subsidised abortion services were able to obtain them either because the services were not available or accessible to them, or because the states had policies prohibiting coverage.
5. Henshaw S, 1995. Factors hindering access to abortion services. Family Planning Perspectives, 27(2):54-59,87.
6. Abortion delivery in the United States: what do current trends and non-surgical alternatives mean for the future? Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York, 1995.
7. Frye A, Atrash HK, Lawson HW et al, 1994. Induced abortion in the United States: A1994 update. JAMWA. 49(5):131-36.
8. Training for first-trimester abortion is required only in 12 per cent of Ob-Gyn residency programmes and for second trimester only in 7 per cent. It is not offered at all in 30 per cent of programmes. Westhoff C, 1994. Abortion training in residency programs. JAMWA. 49(5):159-62, 164.
9. More recently anti-abortion activists have also targeted medical students. A group called 'Life Dynamics' promoted their agenda with 'Bottom Feeder' a so-called 'joke book' that was sent to 35,000 medical students. One of the jokes in it says: 'What do you do if you find yourself in a room with Hitler, Mussolini and an abortionist, and you have only two bullets? Answer: Shoot the abortionist twice' This mailing was meant to intimidate medical students, both by stigmatising abortion and by telling all those who received it that the anti-abortion movement knew where they were living.
10. In 1993 Dr David Gunn was murdered in Pensacola, Florida by Michael Griffen. In 1994 at the same clinic Dr Bayard Britton and clinic escort James Barrett were murdered by Paul Hill. In 1994 in Brookline, Massachusetts, John Salvi murdered Shannon Lowney at the Planned Parenthood Clinic of Greater Boston, and LeeAnn Nichols at the nearby Preterm Health Services.
11. Thirty-eight states have adopted parental involvement laws. See Restrictions on Young Women's Access to Abortion Services. Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. New York, November 1996.
12. Mandatory Parental Consent and Notification Laws. Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. New York, November 1995.
13. Roe v. Wade, the 1973 US Supreme Court decision which legalised abortion, was a compromise among various positions. The court decided to place abortion within the scope of the right to privacy and state intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship, rather than under a right of bodily autonomy. The decision asserts that any restriction on abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy is unconstitutional, and that during that period, the decision to have an abortion is left to the pregnant woman and her physician. In the second trimester, the state may protect its interest in the pregnant woman's health by regulating the abortion procedure in ways reasonably related to her health. In the third trimester, the state may restrict and even prohibit abortion because the state has an interest in protecting the fetus after it has become viable.
14. Janet Hadley makes similar observations in 'The "awfulisation" of abortion' presented at the conference Abortion Matters, Amsterdam, March 1996 and excerpted in Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights Newsletter. 1996; 54:5, 6.
15. Janet Hadley makes similar observations in 'The "awfulisation" of abortion' presented at the conference Abortion Matters, Amsterdam, March 1996 and excerpted in Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights Newsletter. 1996; 54:5, 6.
16. In 1993 the National Black Women's Health Project spearheaded a campaign to repeal the Hyde Amendment. This was the first concerted effort by the pro-choice movement to take on the funding issue since this amendment was initially passed in 1977.
17. Charles Murray, one of the most influential ideologues of 'welfare reform', described illegitimacy as 'the single most important social problem of our time - more important than crime, drugs, poverty, illiteracy, welfare or homelessness because it drives everything else.' In: The coming white underclass. Wall Street Journal. 29 October 1993.