Abortion

[20] When performed legally and safely on a woman who desires it, an induced abortion does not increase the risk of long-term mental or physical problems.

[22] In contrast, unsafe abortions performed by unskilled individuals, with hazardous equipment, or in unsanitary facilities cause between 22,000 and 44,000 deaths and 6.9 million hospital admissions each year.

[53][54][55] The vast majority of miscarriages occur before the woman is aware that she is pregnant,[46] and many pregnancies spontaneously abort before medical practitioners can detect an embryo.

[58] The most common cause of spontaneous abortion during the first trimester is chromosomal abnormalities of the embryo or fetus,[46][59] accounting for at least 50% of sampled early pregnancy losses.

D&C is a standard gynecological procedure performed for a variety of reasons, including examination of the uterine lining for possible malignancy, investigation of abnormal bleeding, and abortion.

[91] Reported methods of unsafe, self-induced abortion include misuse of misoprostol and insertion of non-surgical implements such as knitting needles and clothes hangers into the uterus.

[12][97][98] In the UK, guidelines of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists state that "Women should be advised that abortion is generally safer than continuing a pregnancy to term.

[115][116] It appears that having had a prior surgical uterine evacuation (whether because of induced abortion or treatment of miscarriage) correlates with a small increase in the risk of preterm birth in future pregnancies.

"[130]: 25 According to Rickie Solinger, A related myth, promulgated by a broad spectrum of people concerned about abortion and public policy, is that before legalization abortionists were dirty and dangerous back-alley butchers.... [T]he historical evidence does not support such claims.

The proportion of pregnancies that ended in induced abortion ranged from about 10% (Israel, the Netherlands and Switzerland) to 30% (Estonia) in the same group, though it might be as high as 36% in Hungary and Romania, whose statistics were deemed incomplete.

[170] There are prenatal tests that can diagnose Down Syndrome or cystic fibrosis as early as 10 weeks into gestation, but structural fetal anomalies are often detected much later in pregnancy.

[169] Life-threatening conditions may also develop later in pregnancy, such as early severe preeclampsia, newly diagnosed cancer in need of urgent treatment, and intrauterine infection (chorioamnionitis), which often occurs along with premature rupture of the amniotic sac (PPROM).

[9][7][8] Some of the reasons may include an inability to afford a child, domestic violence, lack of support, feeling they are too young, and the wish to complete education or advance a career.

[172] These might include the preference for children of a specific sex or race, disapproval of single or early motherhood, stigmatization of people with disabilities, insufficient economic support for families, lack of access to or rejection of contraceptive methods, or efforts toward population control (such as China's one-child policy).

[173] In cultures where there is a preference for male children, some women have sex selective abortions, which have partially replaced the earlier practice of female infanticide.

This is particularly true for cervical cancer, the most common type of which occurs in 1 of every 2,000–13,000 pregnancies, for which initiation of treatment "cannot co-exist with preservation of fetal life (unless neoadjuvant chemotherapy is chosen)".

[179] In the United States, public opinion shifted after television personality Sherri Finkbine's was exposed to thalidomide, a teratogen, in her fifth month of pregnancy.

A National Opinion Research Center poll in 1965 showed 73% supported abortion when the mother's life was at risk, 57% when birth defects were present and 59% for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

[187][188] Several religions, including Judaism, which disagree that human life begins at conception, support the legality of abortion on religious freedom grounds.

[192] The physician Scribonius Largus wrote in 43 CE that the Hippocratic Oath prohibits abortion, as did Soranus of Ephesus, although apparently not all doctors adhered to it strictly at the time.

[9][7] A 2019 Pew Research Center study found that most Christian denominations were against overturning Roe v. Wade, which in the United States legalized abortion, at around 70%, except White Evangelicals at 35%.

[226][227][228] Several scholars argue that, despite improved medical procedures, the period from the 1930s until the 1970s saw more zealous enforcement of anti-abortion laws, alongside an increasing control of abortion providers by organized crime.

These circumstances vary based on jurisdiction, but may include whether the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, the fetus' development is impaired, the woman's physical or mental well-being is endangered, or socioeconomic considerations make childbirth a hardship.

[245] In places where abortion is illegal or carries heavy social stigma, pregnant women may engage in medical tourism and travel to countries where they can terminate their pregnancies.

[251] This deviation from the standard birth rates of males and females occurs despite the fact that the country in question may have officially banned sex-selective abortion or even sex-screening.

At the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 over 180 states agreed to eliminate "all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference",[257] conditions also condemned by a PACE resolution in 2011.

In the United States, at least four physicians have been murdered in connection with their work at abortion clinics, including David Gunn (1993), John Britton (1994), Barnett Slepian (1998), and George Tiller (2009).

Notable perpetrators of anti-abortion violence include Eric Rudolph, Scott Roeder, Shelley Shannon, and Paul Hill, the first person to be executed in the United States for murdering an abortion provider.

[269][270] Several plants, including broomweed, skunk cabbage, poison hemlock, and tree tobacco, are known to cause fetal deformities and abortion in cattle[271]: 45–46  and in sheep and goats.

[279] Feticide can occur in horses and zebras due to male harassment of pregnant mares or forced copulation,[280][281][282] although the frequency in the wild has been questioned.