Abortion Archives - Page 20 of 51 - Protection of Conscience Project Library

International Developments in Abortion Law from 1988 to 1998

Rebecca J Cook, Bernard M Dickens, Laura E Bliss

Abstract
Objectives
In 2 successive decades since 1967, legal accommodation of abortion has grown in many countries. The objective of this study was to assess whether liberalizing trends have been maintained in the last decade and whether increased protection of women’s human rights has influenced legal reform.

Methods
A worldwide review was conducted of legislation and judicial rulings affecting abortion, and legal reforms were measured against governmental commitments made under international human rights treaties and at United Nations conferences.

Results
Since 1987, 26 jurisdictions have extended grounds for lawful abortion, and 4 countries have restricted grounds. Additional limits on access to legal abortion services include restrictions on funding of services, mandatory counseling and reflection delay requirements, third party authorizations, and blockades of abortion clinics.

Conclusions
Progressive liberalization has moved abortion laws from a focus on punishment toward concern with women’s health and welfare and with their human rights. However, widespread maternal mortality and morbidity show that reform must be accompanied by accessible abortion services and improved contraceptive care and information.

Cook RJ, Dickens BM, Bliss LE. International Developments in Abortion Law from 1988 to 1998. Am J Public Health. 1999;89(4):579-586.

(News) Police task force targets “terrorists” behind sniper-style attacks on MDs

Barbara Sibbald

Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMAJ — Canadian Medical Association Journal

Extract
Sniper-style attacks on 3 Canadian physicians are “terrorist acts,” police say,and the hunt for the attackers now involves a coordinated national effort. “This is terrorism against doctors as a whole,” says Inspector Keith McCaskill, a member of the national police task force investigating the attacks. “There may be a tendency to politicize this, but that’s not right. This is criminal activity.”

Sibbald B. Police task force targets “terrorists” behind sniper-style attacks on MDs. Can Med Assoc J. 1998 Nov 03;159(9):1153-1154.

(Correspondence) Abortion in proportion (The author responds)

Lynda Buske

Extract
Canada’s comparative ranking in terms of the proportion of therapeutic abortions involving married women should not have been described as a rate. The point being made in the paragraph in question is that the proportion of women receiving abortions in Canada who are either married or in common-law relationships, about 25%, is not unique in international terms.

Buske L. (Correspondence) Abortion in proportion (The author responds). Can Med Assoc J. 1998;159(4):318.

Abortion and the married woman

Lynda Buske

Extract
Most Canadian women who have abortions are single, but a recent Statistics Canada study indicates that more than a quarter of them (26.7%) were either married or in a common-law relationship.

Buske L. Abortion and the married woman. Can Med Assoc J. 1998;159(4):992.

Training family practice residents in abortion and other reproductive health care: a national survey

JE Steinauer, T DePineres, AM Robert, J Westfall, P Darney

Abstract
The majority of residents responding to a 1995 survey of program directors and chief residents at 244 family medicine residency programs in the United States reported they had no clinical experience in cervical cap fitting, diaphragm fitting or IUD insertion and removal. For all family planning methods except oral contraceptives, no more than 24% of residents had experience with 10 or more patients. Although 29% of programs included first-trimester abortion training as either optional or routine, only 15% of chief residents had clinical experience providing first-trimester abortions. Five percent of residents stated they certainly or probably would provide abortions, while 65% of residents stated they certainly would not provide abortions. A majority (65%) of residents agreed that first-trimester abortion training should be optional within family practice residency programs. Residents were more likely to agree with inclusion of optional abortion training and with the appropriateness of providing abortions in family practice if their program offered the training.

Steinauer JE, DePineres T, Robert AM, Westfall J, Darney P. Training family practice residents in abortion and other reproductive health care: a national survey. Fam Plann Perspect. 1997;29(5):222-227.

Professional Versus Moral Duty: Accepting Appointments in Unjust Civil Cases

Teresa Stanton Collett

Extract
Conclusion
Tennessee Formal Ethics Opinion 96-F-140 attempts to disconnect morality from the lawyer’s work. The Board’s disregard of the lawyer’s moral and religious objections to accepting the appointment suggests either a hostility to the particular religious beliefs asserted by the inquiring lawyer or a willingness to demand lawyers accept being treated as mere means to clients’ and courts’ ends. Hostility to religious beliefs is deeply troubling when exhibited by those who are charged with providing lawyers’ guidance in discerning their professional obligations, but the second possible interpretation of the opinion is equally chilling. To the extent that the Board’s opinion represents the members’ considered judgment that lawyers are obligated to act as amoral facilitators of any action not proscribed by positive law, the power of the state is dramatically enlarged and the power of the individual and other social institutions dangerously diminished. This result cannot be tolerated under the terms of the First Amendment, nor can it be reconciled with the lawyer’s basic human rights.

Collett TS. Professional Versus Moral Duty: Accepting Appointments in Unjust Civil Cases. Wake Forest Law Review. 1997;32: 635-670.

(Correspondence) Some final responses to Dr. Waugh

Timothy J Cuddy

Extract
. . . For people with genuine morals, right and wrong do not change with popular public opinion . . . Before we congratulate our society on its social evolution over the last 50 years, we should reflect on the outcome of the society in history that practised throwing people to the lions, or perhaps the society of the 1940s that practised execution of races believed to be inferior.

[Dr. Waugh planned to respond to these letters but was unable to do so before his death on Apr. 18, 1997. In this issue, CMAJ features a tribute to Waugh (page 1524) as well as an article on issues surrounding access to abortion services (page 1545). — Ed.].

Cuddy TJ. (Correspondence) Some final responses to Dr. Waugh. Can Med Assoc. J. 1997 Jun 01;156(11):1529.

(Correspondence) Some final responses to Dr. Waugh

Paul V Adams

Extract
We can ask ourselves: Where will we stand in 30 years if there are amendments to the Criminal Code in regard to the taking of human life, as are now being discussed? If mercy killing, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia became legal activities — even under certain restricted guidelines — there would be inevitable progression until widespread acceptance of these practices would be accompanied by major changes in attitudes. [Dr. Waugh planned to respond to these letters but was unable to do so before his death on Apr. 18, 1997. In this issue, CMAJ features a tribute to Waugh (page 1524) as well as an article on is- sues surrounding access to abortion services (page 1545). — Ed.].

Adams PV. (Correspondence) Some final responses to Dr. Waugh. Can Med Assoc J. 1997;156(11):1529.

Abortion and our changing society

Douglas Waugh

Extract
When I was a medical student in the early ‘40s, and for a considerable time after that, the artificial termination of pregnancy was considered an unspeakable crime. . . . No one knew for certain how widespread the practice was, but enough patients turned up in emergency departments or in the morgue for us to know it was going on, and to arouse the ire and indignation of society’s moralists. . . . The credit for bringing the revolution about certainly belongs to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, but it is clear that Canada’s social climate had been changing slowly for several years before he defied the law by opening his first abortion clinic in Montreal . . . True, the anti-abortion campaign is not yet dead, but its force has become so attenuated the impact is limited.

Waugh D. Abortion and our changing society. Can Med Assoc J. 1997 Feb 01;156(3):408.

Restricting Donative Choice: Fetal Tissue Transplantation and Respect for Human Life

Joanna H Kinney

Abstract
I propose that a woman who becomes pregnant with the intent to abort will be treated as an initial aggressor, and as such she will be denied the “abortion exception” that will be granted to the woman who aborts an accidental, unwanted pregnancy. Moreover, I shall argue that a woman should not be allowed to designate the donee of the fetal tissue from her abortion, even though her pregnancy was accidental. Without this restriction, a woman who intends to become pregnant and abort may simply claim her pregnancy was accidental, and thereby claim the exception. Central to this study is the question of fetal worth, and the value to be ascribed to beings not like us, that is, not like human beings who have been born. Although I argue for a moral justification of elective abortions, I intend to show that such a justification should be a narrowly drawn exception to the prima facie duties neither to harm nor to instrumentalize others. I shall also argue that prohibiting a woman from becoming pregnant in order to abort is necessary because such a situation does not fall within the narrow exception for elective abortions, and that such a restriction is crucial to preserving our respect for those with no voice. Finally, I shall argue that the prohibition against becoming pregnant with the intent to abort does not vitiate a woman’s right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Rather, this restriction is a necessary condition of the prima facie duties of nonmaleficence and non-insturmentalization.

Kinney JH. Restricting Donative Choice: Fetal Tissue Transplantation and Respect for Human Life. J. Law Health. 1996;10(2):259-286.