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view · edit Frequently asked questions Should we add or expand coverage of a particular aspect of abortion? It is likely that we have already done so. There was so much information on abortion that we decided to split it all into separate articles. This article is concise because we've tried to create an overview of the entire topic here by summarizing many of these more-detailed articles. The goal is to give readers the ability to pick the level of detail that best suits their needs. If you're looking for more detail, check out some of the other articles related to abortion. This article seems to be on the long side. Should we shorten it? See above. The guidelines on article length contain exceptions for articles which act as "starting points" for "broad subjects." Please see the archived discussion "Article Length." Should we include expert medical or legal advice about abortions? No. Misplaced Pages does not give legal or medical advice. Please see Misplaced Pages:Medical disclaimer and Misplaced Pages:Legal disclaimer for more information. Should we include or link to pictures of fetuses and/or the end products of abortion? No consensus. See the huge discussion on this topic in 2009 here. Consistently, there has been little support for graphic "shock images"; while images were added in 2009 the topic remains contentious, and some images have been removed. Should we include an image in the lead? No consensus. Numerous images have been proposed for the article lead. However, no image achieved consensus and the proposal that garnered a majority of support is to explicitly have no image in the lead. Should we mention the "death of the zygote/embryo/fetus/child/etc." ? No - It is not mentioned because it is well known and understood by everyone that this happens. To explicitly mention it is POV of anti-abortionists. No one believes that in an abortion procedure the embryo will be transplanted to another woman's uterus or transferred to an artificial placenta so that it can then gestate to term and be birthed. Are the terms "safe" and "safety" used correctly in this article? Yes - please see this RfC on the topic.

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Including all of abortion's names

The way that Climategate is referred to as "CPU research hacking incident", "abortion" should also be called by its other equally legitimate name, "baby murder". From a pro-life POV this is baby murder and we should not be oppressed by the leftist academic/government class. We should be able to include (after "abortion") the term we use to refer to abortion, baby murder. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.109.157.245 (talk) 12:46, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

I have no objection to the basic argument here, because it is general WP policy to lay down redirects to an article under all terms which are commonly and unambiguously used to refer to the subject of said article. Thus, "Climategate" is a common and unambiguous moniker for what would be called (more precisely) the "CRU research hacking incident". Closer to home, WP applies the same principle in the case of partial-birth abortion (precise article title: "intact dilation and extraction," a phrase which, while hideously Orwellian, is also inarguably more precise than "partial-birth abortion").

However, while I see your general point, 71.109.157.245, I don't think it applies here. As an active pro-lifer, I very rarely see my fellow pro-lifers call it "baby murder" in public. They certainly liken it to baby murder, and abortion is certainly morally equivalent to baby murder, but they don't actually call it that. They call it, simply, "abortion." Maybe they shouldn't surrender that piece of rhetorical ground; maybe they should call it unbornicide. But they don't, and WP would be wrong to adopt an alternate name for abortion that isn't in common use.

Nor would the term "baby murder" be unambiguous, referring, as it often does, to infanticide rather than feticide. My two cents. --BCSWowbagger (not signed in on 24.245.45.254 (talk) 19:06, 18 April 2010 (UTC))

Well, for something to be called "baby murder" one would think it should have some direct connection to either babies or murder (or even both!). Unfortunately, whether elective or spontaneous, abortion is not murder, nor does it have anything to do with the death of a baby. This is not an ideological platform, it's fact. In many cases we are talking about some kind of feticide, as mentioned above, but this is far from the only aspect of abortion that is (and should be) addressed in the article. In any case, "killing" + "fetus/embryo" is a far cry from "murder" + "baby"... Let's not start clogging a surprisingly well-balanced article with inaccurate (and more than a little silly) terminology. 66.41.65.237 (talk) 21:48, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages is not a forum, and it is ESPECIALLY not a political forum! So all posters in this section need to chill out immensely. The term I use to refer to Nazis is "Russian target practice" but I don't think that should be in the article about it. Baby murder is a completely and utterly POV term that is not even widely used. I agree with BCSWowbagger that it should really be called partial-birth abortion since it is more commonly used (see Talk:East Germany for a similar discussion on the names of articles), but I feel I need to point out that the term "intact dilation and extraction" is the polar opposite of Orwellian. In 1984, Newspeak shortens words so that they are as refined as possible to limit any possible interpretation other than the Party-defined one. As opposed to lengthening it for scientific/euphemistic purposes (depending on your view) which is the opposite.

Also, to the IP who started this section, it shows a complete lack of good faith and neutrality to assume that because a Wikipedian disagrees on whether or not we should call it baby murder, you are being oppressed by some vast left-wing conspiracy. Furthermore, you actually said you speak from a pro-life POV and not a neutral POV, in complete contradiction of the tenets of good editing and just plain common sense. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that as a Wikipedian, your POV is meaningless here. Commissarusa (talk) 20:59, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Maybe we shouldn't feed trolls (or continue forum-y conversations from over a month ago ;P ) -Andrew c  21:16, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Differentiating abortion in mammals from human abortion

I'd like to recommend a very small change in the first paragraph:

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo, resulting in or caused by its death. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species. In the context of human pregnancies, an abortion induced to preserve the health of the gravida (pregnant female) is termed a therapeutic abortion, while an abortion induced for any other reason is termed an elective abortion. The term abortion most commonly refers to the induced abortion of a human pregnancy, while spontaneous abortions are usually termed miscarriages.

It seems to me that the first two sentences refer to abortion in mammals, including humans. The rest of the lead section and most of the article applies only to human abortion. (It's my understanding that abortion, as a term, can apply only to mammals. Can you abort a tadpole?)

I want to suggest two small changes. First, introduce a paragraph break between the secord and third sentences. Second, move the wiki-link to the first occurrence of human pregnancies. Like this:

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo, resulting in or caused by its death. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species.

In the context of human pregnancies, an abortion induced to preserve the health of the gravida (pregnant female) is termed a therapeutic abortion, while an abortion induced for any other reason is termed an elective abortion. The term abortion most commonly refers to the induced abortion of a human pregnancy, while spontaneous abortions are usually termed miscarriages.

The first occurrence of the wikilinked pregnancy accesses the "Pregnancy (mammals)" article while the wikilinked "human pregnancies", now in the second paragraph, links to "Pregnancy", which deals with and is a redirect of "Human pregnancy". (The invisible comment under this text would have to be altered slightly as well; from <!--Annotation: This paragraph...--> to <!--Annotation: These two paragraphs...-->.)

Of course, another solution would be to split the article into "Abortion in humans" and "Abortion in mammals " (including humans), with hatnotes pointing to the other one. Or maybe a series of hatnotes referring to Abortion debate, Abortion law and possibly Abortion in the United States and even Sex-selective abortion and female infanticide so that you can concentrate of the medical and surgical aspects rather than the legal and social facets.

But my proposal right now is for the simple change to the first paragraph detailed above. What say you? --RoyGoldsmith (talk) 19:32, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

• Though the article seems to focus on human abortion, the last paragraph "Abortion in other animals" makes it known that elective abortion is used on horses, indicating that your proposed solution (to state that elective abortion is only in the context of human pregnancy) is contradictory.

In other words, your proposed solution, to limit elective and therapeutic abortion to humans is self-reflectively incorrect. However, acknowledgment of abortion in "human and other species" is self-reflectively correct.

173.30.9.30 (talk) 19:36, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Congratulatons

I have come back to this article after a year, and find it is MUCH improved. I might quibble about an emphasis here or an emphasis there, but this is much clearer and much more balanced --- and factual ---than it was. Congratulations to all those who were involved. 216.239.82.80 (talk) 05:24, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Header change

Should the section with the header containing the words "female infanticide" be changed to female foeticide, for clarification? (ie. pre-birth not post-birth) —Preceding unsigned comment added by InternetGoomba (talk • contribs) 19:59, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Safer than childbirth

There's a sentence in this article that says: "Early-term surgical abortion is a simple procedure which is safer than childbirth when performed before the 21st week." There was previously a lot of discussion about this, because some editors felt that it denies abortion is unsafe for the embryo or fetus. So, there have been times when the sentence instead said: "Early-term surgical abortion is a simple procedure which is safer for women than childbirth when performed before the 21st week."

There was a big discussion about this in September 2007. I was not involved, being otherwise occupied. It's in Archive 29, here and here. Another option, instead of including "for women" in this sentence, would be to modify the heading so it's clear we're talking about health risks for the woman (though Andrew c has just reverted that approach). I don't really care which way it's done. Maybe there's a third way ("maternal health risks"?). But it does seem to me that something should be done.

If you like, I can go back through the history of this article, and figure out how this particular sentence and/or the heading has been phrased over the years. I do seem to recall that there has been a pretty firm consensus at some points in the past for including "for women" in this sentence (and some admins reverted changes with some pretty emphatic edit summaries).Anythingyouwant (talk) 04:50, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I've looked into this some more, and the person who put it best was the editor ElinorD: "Those two words don't push anything, but leaving them out does." That phrase ("safer for women than childbirth") appears in reliable sources. For example, see:

McLain, Linda. The place of families: fostering capacity, equality, and responsibility, page 237 (2006): "safer for women than childbirth".

Goldstein, Leslie. Contemporary cases in women's rights, page 21 (1994): "safer for a woman than childbirth".

These sources are not implying that there's someone else who may be unsafe, but merely using the word "woman" because it fits well in the sentence. I realize that there will be objection to using the word "mother" or "maternal" (which are normal medical terms), so why not use the word "woman"?

Here’s what our third cited source (Grimes DA (1994). "The morbidity and mortality of pregnancy: still risky business". Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 170 (5 Pt 2): 1489–1494. PMID 8178896) says:

The three leading causes of maternal death today are pregnancy-induced hypertension, hemorrhage, and pulmonary embolism. Although comprehensive data on pregnancy-related morbidity are lacking, about 22% of all pregnant women are hospitalized before delivery because of complications. Women of minority races have much higher risks of death than do white women, and the same holds true for older women and those with limited education. For most women, fertility regulation by contraception, sterilization, or legal abortion is substantially safer than childbirth.

Also see:

Goldstein, Laurence. The Female body: figures, styles, speculations, page 61 (1991): "abortion is safer for the mother than childbirth".

Senderowitz, Judith. Adolescent health: reassessing the passage to adulthood, page 17 (1995): "safer than childbirth for women age 15-19".

Anythingyouwant (talk) 07:38, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Your "reliable sources" google search is deceptive. You listed the ONLY two books that contain your desired phrase. Yes, there are a total of two hits on google books for your preferred wording (in all fairness I've found two additional sources that have a similar wording "Abortions are statistically safer than childbirth for the mother during the first trimester" and "early abortion is 24 times safer than childbirth for women age 15-19". But, how many hits are there for "safer than childbirth" without such modification? If none of these sources feel it is necessary to add such a qualification, I feel like we are supporting a minority view, and thus violating weight, by going with the minimal sources we could google to support our preferred wording... We say in the first sentence that abortion results in the death of an embryo/fetus. DO we also need to say that health considerations for women undergoing the procedure are excluding the outcome of the POC? I think not, and the majority of "reliable sources" based on a google book search agree. -Andrew c  14:46, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Please note that WP:MEDRS calls for a better standard than just WP:RS in cases like this. Journal articles describing the authors' research are treated as primary sources. We look for recent reviews, and where possible, recent systematic reviews. I would suggest PMID 18319189 and PMID 19201657 as providing a more WP:WORLDWIDE perspective than the above developed world focused sources. The vast majority of maternal deaths clearly occur in developing countries. Limiting the focus to rich countries misses the point entirely. LeadSongDog come howl! 15:47, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Andrew c, sure there are a lot of sources that also use the phrase "safer than childbirth". Likewise, there are a zillion sources that use the term "maternal health" and yet this article leans over backward to never use the word "mother" or "maternal", though this issue would be easily solved by writing "maternal health" in the heading instead of "health." One way we could preserve the phrase would be to write: "Early-term surgical abortion is a simple procedure which is safer than childbirth for most women, when performed before the 21st week."

Can we at least please track the cited sources? Abortion is safer than childbirth for "most women". Saying so in the article cannot conceivably imply anything "pro-life." You can even say the "vast majority of women" or "almost all women" or "women in most countries" or "women in almost all countries", et cetera. The point is to be less categorical (per the sources), while also not denying (or affirming) that there may be health risks for someone else.

Mifepristone is contraindicated with adrenal failure, hemorrhagic disorders, inherited porphyria, and anticoagulant or long-term corticosteroid therapy. Surgical abortion is contraindicated in patients with hemodynamic instability, profound anemia, and/or profound thrombocytopenia. In some cases childbirth is safer (and LeadSongDog is correct to point out that the degree of relative safety also depends on what country a woman lives in).

You're correct that this article starts out by mentioning death of the fetus or embryo, but that doesn't mean it would be okay to say much later in the article that "abortion is a completely harmless procedure for everyone involved." Which is how some people will reasonably read the sentence in question.

According to pro-lifers, the phrase "abortion is safer than childbirth" is a mantra for abortion advocates. Can't we use a phrase that is a mantra for neither side, and that is more accurate too?

We might also consider using the word "slightly" given that (in the U.S. anyway) the risks from both early abortion and childbirth are vanishingly small. There is less than .01% risk of maternal death from childbirth in the United States and Europe. Additionally, perhaps we should also mention that early abortion is extremely unsafe relative to being nonpregnant? Let's not deceive readers into thinking that early abortion is risk-free.Anythingyouwant (talk) 16:40, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

When a woman becomes pregnant, she has a choice to terminate the pregnancy or carry it to term. Therefore, the comparison generally made by reliable independent sources is between abortion and full-term pregnancy/childbirth. If you're aware of reputable sources making the comparison you suggest, please point them out.

In an absolute sense, the risks of death from childbirth and from (legal) abortion are both extremely small. In a relative sense, in the US, childbirth (7.06 deaths per 100,000 live births) is about 14 times riskier than abortion (0.567 deaths per 100,000 procedures, figures from PMID 16389015). So it would be accurate to say that abortion is safer than childbirth, that it is ~14 times safer, and that both childbirth and abortion are very safe in an absolute sense.

It might also be appropriate to note that these figures assume that abortion is legal and readily available. In countries where abortion is illegal, or where it is legal but access is restricted by various extralegal means, unsafe abortions are a significant cause of death (e.g. PMID 17126724).

I don't think anyone is trying to "deceive" readers into thinking abortion is risk-free. MastCell  04:21, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I agree with a lot of what you said, MastCell. I agree that we would be accurate to say that both childbirth and abortion are very safe in an absolute sense (which the article does not currently say). I agree that it would be appropriate to note that the figures about the relative safety of abortion and childbirth assume that abortion is legal and readily available (which the article does not currently do). And I'll AGF and assume that no one is trying to "deceive" readers into thinking abortion is risk-free (I hope that Andrew c would AGF and assume that my Google search was not meant to be "deceptive").

Also, we should not omit that there are risks associated with early abortion even in countries where abortion is legal, like the U.S. (as the article currently does). By putting in your factor of fourteen, we could accomplish that.

But here's what I think you haven't addressed: why can't we put "most women" somewhere in the sentence that says abortion is safer than childbirth (or alternatively put the word "maternal" in the section heading)? Merely saying that abortion has minimal health risks is really a lopsided method of expression.Anythingyouwant (talk) 05:09, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm a little agnostic about how to best present the risk level. Going back to WP:MEDRS-friendly sources, PMID 15096333 (a review from Annals of Internal Medicine) states:

Abortion is one of the safest procedures in contemporary practice. However, in some developing countries where safe, legal abortion is not available, 50,000 to 70,000 women die of unsafe abortion each year.

Which is sort of what I was getting at above, although more concisely put. That same review compares the safety of abortion favorably with that of penicillin. (The risk of dying from an anaphylactic reaction to a dose of penicillin is 2 per 100,000, about 4 times higher than the risk of death from abortion). Whether that is a useful comparison to cite in this article would be a matter for discussion; I have no strong position.

It is generally understood that abortion is safer than childbirth at any gestational age. UpToDate says as much ("Overall, elective abortion at any gestational age is safer for the mother than carrying a pregnancy to term.") although I don't think it's an ideal source, and I'd rather cite the actual literature if we choose to include that fact. I'm not quite clear on what the proposed addition of "most women" refers to - is it meant to cover situations where abortion is illegal or otherwise inaccessible, where the risk of abortion is demonstrably higher? If so, IMO we should probably just come out and say as much, in the interest of clarity. MastCell  18:06, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

If elective abortion at any gestational age is safer for the mother than carrying a pregnancy to term, then where the heck did the "21 week" figure come from in the present article? My understanding was that abortion gets riskier as time goes by, and eventually gets riskier than childbirth. If what the article presently says is flat wrong, then I hope someone corrects it.

As for including new info, I hope someone will insert that both childbirth and early abortion are very safe in an absolute sense, given that maternal mortality in developed countries is less than .01%. This is essential for NPOV. Also, if we say that our statistics apply for "most women in developed countries where abortion is legal" then we needn't necessarily get into details about what happens in other countries, or details about the women for whom the statistics might be different (e.g. women with contraindications). All of those details could be in footnotes or via footnotes. Additionally, we need to mention that even for those "most women" there is some risk involved (which is where your factor of fourteen would be helpful assuming it's accurate), and again this seems necessary for NPOV.

Using a term like "for most women" would kill two birds with one stone, if you will. It would not only help achieve the NPOV goals described above, but would also help us to avoid saying the equivalent of "abortion is very safe," which may not be quite accurate from every point of view (i.e. death of a tiny human being is involved, so something unsafe must be going on).Anythingyouwant (talk) 20:23, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Hmm. Re: 21 weeks, it appears to be based on a Guttmacher Institute fact sheet, which is in turn based on PMID 15051566 from the CDC. Figure 1 of that article shows mortality by gestational age, but the abscissa only goes up to 21 weeks - presumably because abortions after 21 weeks are extremely rare and data is lacking. I assume that the "21 weeks" figure was inserted here out of caution, since the cited source only shows data through 21 weeks. On the other hand, the UpToDate authors were probably willing to extrapolate existing data beyond 21 weeks, but as best I can tell that is a matter of expert opinion rather than hard data. MastCell  22:08, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Well, we seem to have consensus that it would be okay to fix up this section of the article in one way or another. Do we need a draft at the talk page first, or shall one of us just go ahead and edit the article, subject to change? And which editor would like to take the lead? There's no sense having multiple first drafts.Anythingyouwant (talk) 22:12, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure we're agreed on what needs to be fixed. In any case, I'm going to step back - it might be good to hear from some other editors on the topic. MastCell  22:29, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Okay, maybe Andrew c or others have some thoughts about it.Anythingyouwant (talk) 22:34, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm all for making revisions based on better, medical sources for the purpose of accuracy and WP:MEDRS. I consider the initial issue raised here unimportant, and I don't think we need to give a nod to the view that "while abortion may be safe for pregnant women, abortion isn't safe for the tiny human being" anywhere in this section. That is not to say that I may not be convinced otherwise based on new, significant WP:MEDRS. But I really don't think it is a good practice to come to an article with a POV, then go looking for sources. We should be following sources, and representing majority views, and taking not of weight were applicable. All that said, I'm all ears to proposals. And feel free to make bold changes to the article as well (anyone!) As it stands, it seems like there is basic agreement that there may be some technical adjustments needed to the figure concerning safety, and perhaps a clause added about relative safety of both procedures. This is a bit technical, and I haven't looked into any of the sources, and have been busy with other matters, so I'm probably not a good candidate for a re-write. -Andrew c  23:25, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Andrew c, if I were to insert into this section that, "abortion has a low risk for everyone involved, relative to childbirth" then that would be fine with you? It implicitly denies that there is any significance to the death that occurs. Arent' we supposed to be NPOV? I think we should steer as far from such statements as possible. Anyway, I'll go ahead and try some bold changes when I get a chance.Anythingyouwant (talk) 23:30, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I think we can give the reader a minimal degree of credit and assume that they understand the impact of abortion on the fetus. It seems awkward and repetitive (at best) or polemical (at worst) to belabor this point in the "health risks" section. MastCell  23:44, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Nor should we go out of our way, at all possible opportunities, to use phraseology that denies anyone is involved but the woman. Neutral phraseology should be acceptable.Anythingyouwant (talk) 23:53, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I agree with that principle, but I do not agree with your application of it here, nor with your concept of "neutral" language in this instance. I don't believe that an objective (or even minimally literate) reader, reviewing this article, would conclude that it "denies" that abortion harms the fetus. I will withdraw and await additional input. MastCell  23:58, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Been a while since I've weighed in an abortion discussion, has it ever been outlined/debated when we draw the line in the sand for the fetus' health matters, if ever? I regard the fetus as a welcome parasite, meaning that in the end indeed it is the host that matters, and that is what we write towards. On the other hand, acknowledging the "death" of the fetus is appropriate, but that doesn't seem to be a health risk, rather a result. Also, obviously an abortion is for a women, not a fetus. So grammatically that follows, I think. - RoyBoy 04:07, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Looking a 4th time found an issue, every"one" involved, determines the fetus is an individual. That is not the case, a fetus has the elements of an individual, but they are in development. There is a difference. - RoyBoy 04:22, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

The initial point here seems to include women on the phrase, it's reasonable and I don't see the problem of making that change. Although it should be already implied to most of the readers that abortion causes the death of the baby other consequences can't be suddenly ignored when saying it's safer, otherwise it may imply the fetus has the same chances from dieing during the pregnancy process compared to the successfulness of the abortion procedure in killing the fetus.

Another point raised is that abortion is only safer when done in specific conditions.

RoyBoy, your position that the "fetus is not an individual" is not a NPOV, others disagree. From the medical POV human fetuses are usually cared as humans with individual characteristics and needs. Most individuals are also "in development" during a large part of their lives after childbirth--Nutriveg (talk) 12:36, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

No. The opening of the lead paragraph makes it clear that the death of the foetus is involved. It's not an implication but an explicit statement. That is nowhere hear on the same level as an implication - in your opinion - that because we do not explicitly refer to the woman, that the foetus might be as likely to survive the abortion process as to survive pregnancy. The longer I think about this point, the more it sounds like a pro-life talking point. I can imagine the sneering tone, "Yeah, abortion is safer... for the mother." That's the problem I see with it. SHEFFIELDSTEEL 13:36, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Contraception substitute

This edit was reverted under claims of "The cited article really doesn't say that at all." but the information is mentioned in the top of the reference.--Nutriveg (talk) 14:39, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I read the whole article but - due to being unfamiliar with the formatting - didn't notice the "pull-out" at the top. I don't know who added the pull-out or why, but it doesn't sum up the rest of the piece. The article provides hard figures about abortions but does not mention use of abortion as an alternative to contraception, even at the very end of the article where a spokesman for the Family Education Trust provides a conservative interpretation of the figures:

In other words, the article doesn't say what you said it says - no mention of abortion as an alternative to contraception - and it doesn't even say what it says it says. It certainly doesn't refer to some abortions as being "inadequate." It just has an attention-grabbing sub-headline. SHEFFIELDSTEEL 17:25, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

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