Women's health

The Abortion Debate: Can this chronic public illness be cured? By Daniel Callahan

Giuliana Gerbino

Callahan, Daniel. “The Abortion Debate: Can this chronic public illness be cured?” Clinical Obstetrics and gynecology 35.4 (Dec.1992): 783-791. 

Daniel Callahan was an American philosopher who played a leading role in developing the field of biomedical ethics as co-founder of The Hastings Center, the world’s first bioethics research institute. The document provides information on how abortion has become one of the most eternal and disturbing issues in American legal and moral struggles. It also gives reasons as to why the issue of abortion should be legalized. Thus, an important document in this paper since it provides information on the issue under discussion. It also provides the need to do everything possible to change the social and economic circumstances leading to abortion, the need for compromise, and the need for meaningful counseling of women who consider abortion.

  1. “The movement to legalize abortion rested on the following: 1) illegal abortions were killing and maiming women; 2) women should have a backup to ineffective contraception; 3) women should have the right to make the abortion decision; 4) everything possible should be done to change the economic and domestic circumstances forcing women into unwanted pregnancies.
  2. “Those who pressed the pro-choice side of the argument had plenty of opposition, but they had the tide of public opinion with them.”

Abortion Law and Policy Around the World: In Search of Decriminalization By Marge Berer

Amanee Ahmed

Berer, Marge. “Abortion Law and Policy around the World: In Search of Decriminalization.” Health and Human Rights. U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2017. 

Marge Berer is an international coordinator of the International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion, London, UK, and was the editor of Reproductive Health Matters. “Abortion Law and Policy Around the World” by Marge Berer is a journal that emphasizes the need to decriminalize abortion in order to protect the rights and health of women. The journal looks at how abortion laws stand now in various nations, with a focus on those that outlaw the procedure or severely restrict access to it. Criminalizing abortion, according to Berer, does not stop it from occurring; rather, it pushes it underground and makes it riskier, endangering the lives of women. She is a supporter of a human rights-based strategy for abortion that acknowledges women’s autonomy and agency in making choices about their own bodies and lives. This article is helpful towards my topic because the article emphasizes the urgent need for global action to decriminalize abortion and ensure that all women have access to safe and legal abortion services.

  1. “It should be clear that the plethora of convoluted laws and restrictions on abortion do not make any legal or public health sense. What makes abortion safe is simple and irrefutable—when it is available on the woman’s request and universally affordable and accessible.” (Berer)
  2. “Thus, the availability of safe abortion depends not only on permissive legislation but also on a permissive environment, political support, and the ability and willingness of health services and health professionals to make abortion available.” (Berer)