what is meant by the word abortion

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Alice Reilly

  1. What is meant by the word ‘abortion’?

A dictionary definition of the word ‘abortion’ is: ‘the removal of a baby from the womb before it has developed enough to survive’ . I think the given dictionary definition is an accurate description of the meaning of ‘abortion’ which is basically terminating a pregnancy before the developing foetus is born or able to survive, opposed to a spontaneous and natural abortion which is a miscarriage. However, terminating a pregnancy is usually a very emotional and hard decision to make and women decide to have abortions for many different reasons.

A woman may decide to abort her developing foetus because she might already have several young children who are difficult to control and expensive to look after and therefore decide that it would be too inconvenient and stressful to have another young child. Women who have become pregnant as a result of rape may therefore feel that having the child would be a constant reminder of the tragic event and decide to abort the child. Another reason women may chose to have an abortion is because they are unmarried and would not feel comfortable having a child with a man she is not legally married to as the man therefore has no long term commitment to the relationship with the woman. Women may also decide to abort their developing foetus if they think they are too young and having the child would affect their future, or because having the child would interfere with their present career.  Women may also decide to abort their foetus due to health problems and continuing with the pregnancy would be detrimental to the women’s health and could cause them to develop an illness. Also if the developing foetus is predicted to be handicapped, disabled and expected to have a short lifespan, women may decide to have an abortion as they would rather their child was at peace and in no pain rather than living a short, painful life which would also be very emotional for the mother to witness.

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In the United Kingdom the Abortion Act of 1967 states that abortion is legal up to 24 weeks into the pregnancy. Abortions are only allowed to be carried out with the consent of two doctors; however doctors have the right to refuse consent for an abortion if they feel the circumstances aren’t justified or sufficient enough for an abortion or it may be because they believe abortion is wrong. The Abortion Act states that if any doctor sees any moral discomfort to an abortion then they have the right to not give consent. Women have to present doctors with justified ...

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