Search Results (35)

While American magisterial teaching has continuously cast abortion as part of a consistent ethic covering a comprehensive and interrelated set of issues affecting human life and dignity, the teaching also entails a set of tensions between the single issue of abortion and the larger framework, and this has been resolved by insisting that the legality of abortion affects all other issues and so deserves special focus; this focus has played out in public policy with detrimental consequences. This essay argues that if the bishops’ goals truly are a reduction in abortions, the promotion of respect for life and human dignity, and the promulgation of a truly comprehensive and consistent ethic, then there must be a change in their approach. This change would consist of a focus on the unintended lethal impacts of illegality, more grassroots arguments aimed at changing cultural attitudes, and more support—in both rhetoric and action—for measures that work, including but not limited to the myriad levels of structural justice for the poor and women in particular. These actions would, in turn, reinforce the consistent ethic. Further, the bishops should disavow a single-issue approach and move toward an actually comprehensive approach to public policy. Full article

Background/Objectives: Over the years, the potential of the first-trimester (FT) ultrasound in the detection of fetal structural defects has increased. The main objectives of the first-trimester fetal screening evaluation are the detection of major structural anomalies and the diagnosis of additional sonographic markers for chromosomal disorders. When a fetal anomaly is diagnosed, patients have the right to be informed about the risks, necessary interventions, or alternatives. Depending on the severity of the anomalies and the pregnancy period, the legality of the pregnancy termination was evaluated. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the first-trimester morphological screening of the fetus using an ultrasound protocol according to the latest international protocols (the ISUOG protocol). Methods: Between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024, 854 pregnancies with gestational ages between 11 weeks and 13 weeks + 6 days were morphologically evaluated during the nuchal scan in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the Emergency County Hospital from Craiova. Both transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasound in 2D and in a color Doppler mode were used in the scanning technique. The ultrasound findings were correlated with the genetic testing results and pregnancy outcome. The medical law implications were related to the cases where the ultrasound was performed at about 13 weeks of gestation, and the screening genetic results showed an increased pregnancy risk, which arose during the FT. In these cases, we performed amniocentesis at about 16–17 weeks of gestation, and especially, the Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT)-positive cases were confirmed by karyotyping. Still, at this gestational age of diagnosis, the Romanian law would not allow abortions. Results: By using this extended FT ultrasound protocol, we detected 58 cases with fetal structural anomalies. Eighteen cases were also associated with genetic syndromes after performing chorionic villous sampling (CVS). Three cases detected with minor structural anomalies (two cases with club foot and one case with a cleft upper lip) were lost to follow-up. Conclusions: Fetal morphological ultrasound evaluation is feasible in the late first trimester. By using an extended ultrasound protocol, we can detect most of the fetal structural anomalies and contribute to better medical counseling and improve pregnancy outcomes. Full article

Objective: This study examines YouTube comments following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, investigating how perceptions of health implications differ based on commenters’ gender and abortion stance. Methods: Using Netlytic, 25,730 comments were extracted from YouTube videos discussing the overturn of Roe v. Wade, half of which featured physicians discussing public health implications. Manual coding of 21% of the comments identified discussions on abortion stance and medical implications, while Gender API approximated the commenters’ gender. A term co-occurrence network was generated with VOSviewer to visualize key terms and their interrelations. Custom overlays explored patterns related to gender, abortion views, and medical implications, and comparisons within these overlays intersected with the medical implications overlay to illustrate contextual differences across demographics. Results: Four clusters emerged in the network: Constitutional Law, addressing the U.S. Constitution’s interpretation and legal impacts; Reproductive Rights and Responsibility, discussing alternatives to abortion and access; Human Development, exploring the intersection of abortion laws and individual beliefs; and Religious Beliefs, linking abortion laws to faith. Prochoice users focused on medical and socioeconomic impacts on women, whereas prolife users emphasized the prevention of unwanted pregnancies and moral considerations. Gender analysis revealed males centered on constitutional issues, while females highlighted medical and personal effects. Conclusion: The findings underscore that monitoring YouTube discourse offers valuable insights into public responses to shifts in health policy. Full article

This paper examines the historical relationship between Shi’i jurisprudence and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s reproductive biopolitics. Using archival methods, the paper looks into the similarities and differences between religious interpretations and Iranian law. It then analyzes the implications of the recent ‘Family Protection and Youthful Population’ law, enacted in 2021 in response to fears of a looming ‘population crisis,’ and how it further restricts women’s access to abortion (care). The paper argues that reproductive policies are influenced not only by religious authorities and pronatalist patriarchal rationales but also by specific anxieties about a population crisis and decline considered a threat to the country’s national security. Reproductive policies exist within a moral framework at the intersection of demographic anxieties, biopolitics, and religious discourses that push women toward unpaid maternal labor and traditional gender roles. Full article

Pregnancy termination, also referred to as abortion, is a contentious subject in many countries. Uganda’s culture requires young people to remain celibate; they therefore suffer from restricted access to any sexual and reproductive health information, products, and services, including contraceptives. Girls who are pregnant in Uganda are oppressed in various ways, including being expelled from school. Since abortion is illegal under Ugandan law, those abortions that take place are assumed to have a high risk of being unsafe. Most previous studies in the African context have thus focused on the phenomenon of unsafe abortion. Adolescent abortion is characterized by a rhetoric of pathology that frames girls as victims of deadly unsafe abortion practices. This paper aims to critique the view that pregnant adolescent girls are merely vulnerable victims who passively accept the denial of SRH services, including abortion. We analyzed the life histories of 14 girls in Uganda who had undergone pregnancy termination. Our findings showed that adolescent girls are not passive victims of the structural barriers to abortion. They use their agency to obtain knowledge, make decisions, successfully terminate pregnancy, and conceal the information as needed. It is therefore important for policymakers to acknowledge the agency of adolescent girls in regard to pregnancy termination and how this recognition could be of benefit in terms of devising appropriate supports for them. Full article

Substantive due process, drawn from the 14th Amendment, has been a consistent judicial doctrine for establishing and protecting the rights and liberties of Black citizens in the face of systemic racism. This prompts a question for political consideration and investigation: if the 14th Amendment is a constitutional equilibrium for rights Black citizens would otherwise not enjoy, could the rescission of a right decided and sustained by the 14th Amendment that is not racially explicit have negative racial implications for Black Americans? This study answers this question through an atheoretical case study on the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade. This study finds that the ruling in Dobbs weakened the 14th Amendment by allowing parameters to be placed on substantive due process. Though the question before the Court was the constitutionality of Mississippi’s abortion law, the implications of weakening the 14th Amendment are that it allows for the legal and cultural revitalization of Black exclusion that existed under the Black Codes, which has already come to fruition in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and the end of affirmative action. Full article

Stealthing is the removal of a condom during sexual intercourse without the consent of one’s partner. Despite considerable media attention devoted to the trend, limited empirical research has examined how women experienced stealthing. This study aimed to contribute toward generating empirical evidence to guide the discussion surrounding stealthing. It is the first empirical research at a national level in Brazil. An online survey was conducted among 2275 women over 18 who experienced stealthing. The study analyzes these women’s sociodemographic profiles and how they experienced stealthing. Most were white, young, had a religion, were highly educated, and belonged to the Brazilian middle class. They usually experienced stealthing during their youth, and the perpetrator was a cisgender man. Most of them did not look for the morning-after pill and post-exposure prophylaxis after the occurrence and never told anyone about this experience. They stated that the perpetrator should be punished. Women reported contracting sexually transmitted infections, experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, or having an illegal abortion. In conclusion, the high incidence of stealthing in the country is notable, which should generate more discussions at academic and legal levels, creating specific laws on the subject so that victims could have more support. Full article

The purpose of this study is to describe the sociodemographic and situational circumstances of adolescents obtaining abortion in the United States prior to the Dobbs decision. We use data from the Guttmacher Institute’s 2021–2022 Abortion Patient Survey, a cross-sectional survey of 6698 respondents; our analytic sample includes 633 adolescents (<20 years), 2152 young adults (20–24 years), and 3913 adults (25+ years). We conducted bivariate analyses to describe the characteristics and logistical and financial circumstances of adolescents obtaining abortions in comparison to respondents in the other age groups. The majority of adolescents identified as non-white (70%), and 23% identified as something other than heterosexual. We found that 26% of adolescents reported having no health insurance, and two-thirds of adolescent respondents reported that somebody had driven them to the facility. Adolescents differed from adults in their reasons for delays in accessing care; a majority of adolescents (57%) reported not knowing they were pregnant compared to 43% of adults, and nearly one in five adolescents did not know where to obtain the abortion compared to 11% of adults. Adolescents were more likely than adults to obtain a second-trimester abortion, which has increased costs. This study found that this population was more vulnerable than adults on several measures. Findings suggest that adolescents navigate unique barriers with regard to information and logistics to access abortion care. Full article

Cancer during pregnancy, affecting 1 in 1000 pregnancies, is rising in incidence due to delayed childbearing and improved detection. Common types include breast cancer, melanoma and cervical cancer and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. There are several physiological changes that occur during pregnancy that make its management a challenge to clinicians. Managing it requires multidisciplinary approaches and cautious test interpretation due to overlapping symptoms. To minimize fetal radiation exposure, non-ionizing imaging is preferred, and the interpretation of tumor markers is challenging due to inflammation and pregnancy effects. In terms of treatment, chemotherapy is avoided in the first trimester but may be considered later. Immunotherapy’s safety is under investigation, and surgery depends on gestational age and cancer type. Ethical and legal concerns are growing, especially with changes in U.S. abortion laws. Access to abortion for medical reasons is vital for pregnant cancer patients needing urgent treatment. Maternal outcomes may depend on the type of cancer as well as chemotherapy received but, in general, they are similar to the non-pregnant population. Fetal outcomes are usually the same as the general population with treatment exposure from the second trimester onwards. Fertility preservation may be an important component of the treatment discussion depending on the patient’s wishes, age and type of treatment. This article addresses the complicated nature of a diagnosis of cancer in pregnancy, touching upon the known medical literature as well as the ethical–legal implications of such a diagnosis, whose importance has increased in the light of recent judicial developments. Full article

This article analyzes how and why a near-total abortion ban was recently secured by a populist ruling party with support from Catholic Church leaders and lay groups following earlier passage of one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. The paper further examines the public health threats posed by these measures, which have long been under-researched. These policy shifts are situated within the deeply embedded context of Poland’s abortion conflict and a setting that has long been challenging for reproductive health. The 1993 ban led to the resurgence of clandestine abortions, a near-total privatization of abortion services, and more women seeking abortion services overseas. In late 2020, the exemption for severe fetal anomalies that made up 97% of all legal abortion cases in prior years was eliminated. Neither ban has significantly reduced the number of women obtaining abortions, nor have they increased birth rates as anticipated by proponents who championed traditional family values that they equated with Catholicism and Polish national identity. The new blanket ban on abortion constitutes a health risk and a punitive measure achieved via a judgement of the Constitutional Tribunal stacked with loyalists by the ruling party. It did not reflect popular will, although societal attitudes on abortion are markedly less permissive than in much of Europe. Although the populist and religious right have realized their long-held goal of further restricting, if not eliminating, women’s access to abortion services, compelling criticisms have been raised about how this move compromises women’s health and autonomy. Ironically, the realization of this goal, which many Poles view as unduly extreme, may also undermine long-term support for both the political right and the Church. The wisdom of their move was widely questioned, sparked the largest protests since the end of Communist rule, and drew international criticism. It proved a polarizing action that alienated many young adults and may have accentuated a secularizing shift. Women and their partners are finding new ways to navigate many public health threats by increasingly traveling beyond Poland for safe abortion care and resorting to newly available medication abortion methods. Full article

Introduction: “Human capital” is defined as an integration of innate skills and knowledge acquired by investing in the formation of an individual; it is a real “capital” that pays off in the long term. In the Italian legal system, a human being is recognised as a “person” from the moment of birth. This determines the acquisition of the personal rights of an individual. Necessarily, therefore, by law, a fetus does not own such rights; nevertheless, it has an innate “potential” to acquire such rights after birth. Objective: In Italian jurisprudence, in general, the damage from a loss of a parental relationship is justified by the condition of existential emptiness caused in the family by the loss of a child. Compensation for this damage in the event of abortion due to third-party responsibility presents a non-uniform recognition in the judgements of the Italian courts, but in any case, it is almost always recognised with limitations since the emotional relationship with the lost individual is defined only in terms of “potential”. Consequently, in this matter, at least two questions can be raised: (i) Is the economic estimate of abortion based on objective and standardised criteria, or is it heavily influenced by subjective evaluation? (ii) Is it possible to find standard criteria that may act as guidelines to quantify the loss of that human capital “in progress”? Methodology: The authors try to answer these questions by analysing the different approaches to this issue adopted at an international level. Conclusions: In conclusion, the authors propose homogeneous criteria to quantify the damage caused by abortion. Full article

Background: In Mozambique, 76% of adolescents have been pregnant before the age of 20 years. Thus, this study explores adults’ perceptions on adolescent attitudes towards pregnancy and abortion in Maputo and Quelimane cities. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted in Maputo and Quelimane, with four focus group discussions. A cross-sectional household survey was used to select adult women participants. Data were analysed applying a thematic analysis approach. Results: Intrapersonal, interpersonal, cultural, and environmental factors influence pregnancy and abortion decision making among adolescents. Generational conflicts reduce the importance paid to traditional knowledge transfer, contraceptive beliefs, denial of paternity, lack of parental support, and procreation value were found to influence abortion decision making and early pregnancy among adolescents. Conclusions: There is a need to improve relationships between adults and adolescents to reduce girls’ vulnerability to early pregnancy, as well as empowering adolescents in order to negotiate safe sex, reducing unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion. Full article

Of the many questions on which our title invites reflection, one in particular has again achieved prominence in the United States: how is a politician who is Roman Catholic expected to vote when a measure purports to legalise what church teaching says is morally wrong? The debate has become increasingly acrimonious, to the point where senior prelates are among those who contend that President Biden and Speaker of the House Pelosi are unfit to receive Holy Communion since they subscribe to the ‘pro-choice’ position of the Democratic Party. The core question has become politicised, its public discussion poisoned by association with toxic elements of the so-called ‘culture wars’, at an impasse that is impairing effective leadership in the US Catholic Church, and an effective Catholic contribution to the common good of American society. I shall argue that this is as unnecessary as it is regrettable, and that a way through the impasse is to be found in mainline Catholic thinking about morality, law, and politics. Full article

The overturning of Roe v Wade reinvigorated the national debate on abortion. We used Twitter data to examine temporal, geographical and sentiment patterns in the public’s reaction. Using the Twitter API for Academic Research, a random sample of publicly available tweets was collected from 1 May–15 July in 2021 and 2022. Tweets were filtered based on keywords relating to Roe v Wade and abortion (227,161 tweets in 2021 and 504,803 tweets in 2022). These tweets were tagged for sentiment, tracked by state, and indexed over time. Time plots reveal low levels of conversations on these topics until the leaked Supreme Court opinion in early May 2022. Unlike pro-choice tweets which declined, pro-life conversations continued with renewed interest throughout May and increased again following the official overturning of Roe v Wade. Conversations were less prevalent in some these states had abortion trigger laws (Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi). Collapsing across topic categories, 2022 tweets were more negative and less neutral and positive compared to 2021 tweets. In network analysis, tweets mentioning woman/women, supreme court, and abortion spread faster and reached to more Twitter users than those mentioning Roe Wade and Scotus. Twitter data can provide real-time insights into the experiences and perceptions of people across the United States, which can be used to inform healthcare policies and decision-making. Full article

The physician’s decision concerning pregnancy termination is influenced by a number of factors. The study aimed at obtaining the opinions of obstetricians and gynecologists with regard to the indications for pregnancy termination, the readiness to perform the procedure personally and the assessment of the determinants thereof. The survey study was conducted between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 among physicians who performed diagnostic prenatal ultrasonography. A considerable majority of physicians participating in the study did not approve of termination without medical indications (62.5%). A marked majority of them considered the following cases as indications for pregnancy termination: severe fetal defects (90%), lethal defects (91.5%) and a disease threatening maternal life (91.5%). A small group of physicians declared that they were ready to perform a termination without medical indications (12.5%). However, they were ready to perform a pregnancy termination personally in cases of threat to maternal life (77.5%), severe fetal defects (75%), lethal fetal defects (75%) and a pregnancy being a result of rape (75%). No statistical significance was observed with regard to the influence of the respondents’ sex, the fact of having children or the workplace on the issue of indications for pregnancy termination. It seems justified to develop case-centered counseling concerning abortion, based on specialists in perinatology, law and ethics, especially in countries with more restrictive abortion law or strongly religious societies. Full article