Pro-choice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pro-choice is a term used to describe the political and ethical view which maintains that a woman should have total control over her fertility and pregnancy. This entails the guarantee of what supporters term reproductive rights, which include access to abortion, contraception, sexual education, fertility treatments, and legal protection from forced abortion. Individuals and organizations that seek to support this stance, both in terms of legality and availability, make up the pro-choice movement.
Pro-choice activists believe that abortion should be a legal option for any woman with an unwanted pregnancy and, equally, that women should be protected from forced abortions. Some see abortion as a last resort, and focus on a number of situations where they feel abortion is a necessary option. Among these situations are those where the woman was raped, her health or life is at risk, contraception was used but failed, or she feels unable to raise a child. Some pro-choice moderates, who would otherwise be willing to accept certain restrictions on abortion, feel that political pragmatism compels them to oppose any such restrictions, as they could be used to form a slippery slope against all abortions.[1]
Pro-choice activists frequently oppose legislative measures that would require abortion providers to make certain statements (some of which are factually disputed) to patients, because they argue that these measures are intended to make obtaining abortions more difficult. These measures fall under the rubric of abortion-specific "informed consent" or "right to know" laws.[2]
On the issue of abortion, pro-choice campaigners are opposed by pro-life campaigners who argue that the central issue is a completely different set of rights. The pro-life view considers a human fetus/embryo to have the full legal rights of a human being; thus, the right to life of a developing fetus/embryo trumps the woman's right to bodily autonomy.
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[edit] Overview
Pro-choice advocates emphasize their beliefs that women's lives are better when they are not forced to go through an unwanted pregnancy, and that both parents' and children's lives are better off when the woman is not denied abortion. According to a review by Dagg quoted in a guideline of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 2004, many women who have been denied an abortion "show ongoing resentment that may last for years".[3] More broadly, pro-choice advocates frame their beliefs in terms of "individual liberty", "reproductive freedom", and "reproductive rights", the former a term widely used to describe many of the political movements of the 19th and 20th centuries (such as in the abolition of slavery in Europe and the United States, and in the spread of popular democracy), the latter terms linked to changing perspectives on sexual freedom and bodily integrity.
Pro-choice individuals often do not consider themselves "pro-abortion" because they consider abortion an issue of bodily autonomy, and find forced abortion as morally repugnant as the outlawing of abortion. Indeed, some who are pro-choice consider themselves opposed to some or all abortions on a moral basis, but believe that abortion bans imperil women's health. Some argue that while they would not advocate an individual case of abortion, a general right to abortion is a principle that must be defended in a liberal democracy. Others have a practical acceptance of abortion, arguing that abortions would happen in any case but that legal abortion under medically controlled conditions is preferable to illegal back-alley abortion without proper medical supervision.
Many pro-choice campaigners also argue that pro-life policies would deny women access to comprehensive sex education and contraception, thus increasing, not decreasing, demand for abortion. Proponents of this argument point to cases of areas with limited sex education and contraceptive access that have high abortion rates, either legal, illegal or de facto exported (i.e., where a high proportion of abortions from a state occur outside that state in another country with a more liberal abortion regime). The Irish women who visit the United Kingdom for abortions are one example, as were the Belgian women travelled to France (before Belgium liberalised its own laws).[4] As with many issues involving political framing, these claims are controversial.
[edit] Pro-choice campaigns worldwide
See also: Abortion law
[edit] United States
Prior to 1973, abortion was not subject to United States constitutional law, but was purely a matter for the individual states in the United States, all of whom chose to apply some nature of restriction. The first legal restrictions on abortion appeared in the 1820s, forbidding abortion after the fourth month of pregnancy. By 1900, legislators at the urgings of the American Medical Association had enacted anti-abortion laws in most US states.[5] In its landmark 1973 case, Roe v. Wade where a woman challenged the Texas laws criminalising abortion the US Supreme Court reached two important conclusions.
- That abortion law was a federal constitutional law issue, not a state one, and was therefore subject to the Constitution of the United States and federal law;[6]
- That the procurement of an abortion was a constitutional right during the first and second trimesters of a pregnancy based on the constitutional right to privacy, but that the state's interest in protecting "potential life" prevailed in the third trimester unless the woman's health was at risk. In subsequent rulings, the Court rejected the trimester framework altogether in favor of a cutoff at the point of fetal viability (Cf. Planned Parenthood v. Casey).
Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America are the leading pro-choice advocacy and lobbying groups in the United States. Most major feminist organizations also support pro-choice positions.
In the United States, the Democratic Party's platform endorses the pro-choice position, stating that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare". Not all Democrats agree with the platform, however, and there is growing support in Congress and among rank-and-file members for Democrats for Life of America.[7] Although the 2004 Republican platform endorses pro-life, advocating more restrictive laws against abortion, there are several nationally prominent Republicans who identify themselves as pro-choice, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New York Gov. George Pataki and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
[edit] Europe
In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats are predominantly pro-choice parties, though with significant minorities in each either holding extremely restrictive definitions of the right to choose, or subscribing to a pro-life analysis. The Conservative Party is more evenly split between both camps.
Most states have legalised abortion (in at least some cases) either through laws (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, etc) or through court rulings (eg the Republic of Ireland,[8]). Russia, which has one of the highest rates of abortion in the world, legalised the procedure in 1955.[9]
[edit] Africa
South Africa allows abortion under its Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1996. Most African nations, however, have abortion bans except in cases where the woman's life or health is at risk. A number of pro-choice international organizations have made altering abortion laws and expanding family planning services in sub-Saharan Africa and the developing world a top priority.[10]
[edit] Worldwide
The issue of abortion remains one of the most divisive in public life, with most political parties in democracies divided on the issue, and continuing battles to liberalise or restrict, access to legal abortion. Pro-choice groups are active in all states, campaigning for legal abortion with varying degrees of success. Few states allow abortion without limitation or regulation, but most do allow various limited forms of abortion. Pro-choice campaigners themselves are frequently divided as to the types of abortion that should be available, and whether the right to choose should be unrestricted or restricted, and if the latter, then to what level.
[edit] Term controversy
The Oxford English Dictionary lists the usage of "pro-choice" at least as early as 1975, around the time when the question of the legality of abortion became increasingly discussed after Roe v. Wade (the term "choice" is used to describe options towards abortion in the case as well).
Both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are examples of political framing: they are terms which purposely try to define their philosophies in the best possible light, while by definition attempting to describe their opposition in the worst possible light ("Pro-choice" implies the alternative viewpoint is "anti-choice", while "pro-life" implies the alternative viewpoint is "pro-death" or "anti-life"). Similarly each side's use of the term "rights" ("reproductive rights", "right to life of the unborn") implies a validity in their stance, given that the presumption in language is that rights[11] are inherently a good thing and so implies an invalidity in the viewpoint of their opponents.
Pro-life and pro-choice individuals often use political framing to convey their perspective on the issues, and in some cases, to discredit opposing views. Pro-life people tend to use terms such as "mother", "unborn child", "unborn baby", "pre-born infant" or infanticide[12]. Pro-choice people tend to use terms such as "zygote", "embryo" or "fetus". Each side accuses the other of using a preferred set of loaded terms.
[edit] References
- ^ Zandt, Deanna (2005-11-03). Husband notification laws and Alito. AlterNet. Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
- ^ Access to Abortion: Mandatory Delay and Biased Information Requirements. Center for Reproductive Rights (July 2003). Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
- ^ The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion (PDF) pp. [citation needed]. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Clinical Effectiveness Support Unit (September 2004). Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
- ^ The statistics on the Irish abortion rate in the United Kingdom remain disputed. A lack of an independent methodology for verification of origins means that estimations as to whether the number of Irish people getting British abortions is higher (i.e., not all those getting abortions are declaring their nationality, with some passing themselves off as British) or lower (with some British women or British women of Irish descent claiming to have travelled from Ireland as a way to ensure that hospitals cannot seek medical information from their doctors, so preserving their complete anonymity). The rival campaigning groups on abortion each use selective interpretations and presumptions to bolster their analysis, in part because the lack of independent methodology makes each other's claims impossible to disprove.
- ^ Lewis, Jone Johnson. Abortion History: A History of Abortion in the United States. Women's History section of About.com. About.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
- ^ Overview. Abortion Law Homepage. Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
- ^ Fineman, Howard; Evan Thomas (2006-03-20). The GOP's Abortion Anxiety. Newsweek Politics. MSNBC. Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
- ^ The Republic of Ireland introduced a "pro-life amendment" to its constitution to prevent abortion by protecting "the right to life of the unborn, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother" (wording of the 8th Amendment). In two legal cases, the X Case and C Case the amendment was interpreted by the Supreme Court as containing a right to abortion in specific circumstances. Though a legal right to abortion now exists in Ireland, no provisions have yet been made to enable the right to be exercised.
- ^ Greenall, Robert (2003-09-16). Russia turns spotlight on abortion. BBC News Online. BBC News. Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
- ^ i.e. Planned Parenthood, Center for Reproductive Rights, and Population Resource Center
- ^ In liberal democracies, a right is seen as something the state and civil society must defend, whether human rights, victims' rights, childrens' rights, etc. Many states use the word rights in fundamental laws and constitutions to define basic civil principles; both the United Kingdom and the United States possess a Bill of Rights.
- ^ New York Times. November 5, 2006
[edit] Sources & additional reading
[edit] Books
- Ninia Baehr, Abortion without Apology: A Radical History for the 1990s South End Press, 1990.
- Ruth Colker, Abortion & Dialogue: Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, and American Law Indiana University Press, 1992.
- Donald T. Critchlow, The Politics of Abortion and Birth Control in Historical Perspective Pennsylvania University Press, 1996.
- Myra Marx Ferree et al, Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States Cambridge University Press, 2002.
- Marlene Gerber Fried, From Abortion to Reproductive Freedom: Transforming a Movement South End Press, 1990.
- Beverly Wildung Harrison, Our Right to Choose: Toward a New Ethic of Abortion Beacon Press, 1983.
- Suzanne Staggenborg, The Pro-Choice Movement: Organization and Activism in the Abortion Conflict, Oxford University Press, 1994.
- Raymond Tatalovich' The Politics of Abortion in the United States and Canada: A Comparative Study M.E. Sharpe, 1997
[edit] Articles & Journals
- Mary S. Alexander, "Defining the Abortion Debate" in ETC.: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. 50, 1993.
- David R. Carlin Jr., "Going, Going, Gone: The Diminution of the Self" in Commonweal Vol.120. 1993.
- Vijayan K. Pillai, Guang-Zhen Wang, "Women's Reproductive Rights, Modernization, and Family Planning Programs in Developing Countries: A Causal Model" in International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 40, 1999.
- Suzanne Staggenborg, "Organizational and Environmental Influences on the Development of the Pro-Choice Movement" in Social Forces, Vol. 68 1989.
[edit] See also
- Abortion
- Abortion law
- Violence in the abortion movement
- Pregnancy
- Pro-life
- Religion and abortion
- Reproduction
- Reproductive rights
[edit] External links
For a list of groups opposed to the pro-choice position, see Pro-life.
[edit] United States
- American Civil Liberties Union
- Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
- Center for Reproductive Health Education in Family Medicine
- Center for Reproductive Rights
- Guttmacher Institute
- NARAL Pro-Choice America
- NOW and Abortion Rights
- Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health
- Planned Parenthood
- Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP)
