Guide Book to Abortion

Paper Summary:

This paper, written as a "citizen's action guide" to abortion, takes an in-depth look at abortion in America. The paper discusses the history of abortion in America, legal aspects, political positions, and medical aspects. It also discusses abortion as a women's issue and examines the raging debate that continues to surround the controversial topic.

History of Abortion
Spotlight on Abortion
The Road to Legalization: U.S. Supreme Court Decisions
The President, George W. Bush, on Abortion
Previous Presidents on Abortion
Political Parties on Abortion
The Issue: Is a Fetus a Viable Human Being?
A Women's Issue: Quality of Life
The Continuing Debate

From the Paper:

"Sherri Finkbine, an Arizona woman pregnant with her fifth child, became concerned about the side effects of thalidomide that she had ingested (brought back by her husband after a trip overseas). Finkbine consulted her physician, who advised her to have an abortion. In Arizona at the time, "therapeutic" abortions were approved based on the attending physician writing a note to a three-doctor medical board explaining the justification for the procedure. Believing that publicizing her thalidomide trauma might alert others in similar situations, Finkbine contacted the editor of her local paper with the story, on the condition that her name be withheld. The ensuing public controversy over the issue resulted in Finkbine being denied a legal abortion in the United States, "Finkbine found herself unable, even after bringing a court challenge, to have an abortion legally. She was ultimately forced to go to Sweden to obtain a legal abortion" (Tribe, p.37). Although approval at the Swedish clinic was not automatic, Finkbine and her husband were able to withstand an extensive series of interviews with social workers, psychiatrists, and obstetricians and obtain the abortion. Finkbine's tenacity was rewarded when a Swedish physician described the condition of the aborted fetus: "He decisively stated that it was not a baby but an abnormal growth that would never be a normal child . . . " (Finkbine, p. 71)."

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