While surrogacy is far more accepted in the United States than in most countries, and increasing rapidly (more than 2,000 babies will be born through it here this year), it remains, like abortion, a polarizing and charged issue. There is nothing resembling a national consensus on how to handle it and no federal law, leaving the states free to do as they wish.
Tag: abortion
19th-Century Classified Ads for Abortifacients and Contraceptives
This compilation of classified ads, from the New York Herald and the New York Sun, shows how contraception, cures for sexually transmitted diseases, abortifacients, and abortion services were advertised in New York City during one week in December, 1841.
The Strange Bedfellows of the Anti-Contraception Alliance
Evangelicals and Catholics didn’t always share the same views on contraception and abortion. A look at how their alliance came to be and how it’s shaping crucial legal battles.
Abortions Declining in U.S., Study Finds
The abortion rate among American women declined to its lowest level in more than three decades in 2011, according to a new report released Monday that is widely considered the country’s most definitive examination of abortion trends.
Should Birth Control Sabotage Be Considered a Crime?
Is poking holes in a condom to produce a pregnancy a criminal act? Not in the U.S., though slipping someone a pill to induce abortion is. But anti-violence groups want the laws changed.
Supreme Court Likely to Rule on Abortion Laws, Contraception Mandate in New Term
The Supreme Court’s new session will almost certainly see a ruling on state power to limit the use of some abortion-inducing drugs and one on Arizona’s law outlawing abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The Court is also expected to rule on the health law’s mandate that almost all employer health plans cover contraception.
Once-a-Month Contraceptive Pill is Scientifically Possible, Say Experts
Researchers say pill could be taken after sex, but predict strong opposition from anti-abortion activists.
Abortion Viewed in Moral Terms: Fewer See Stem Cell Research and IVF as Moral Issues
Regardless of their views about the legality of abortion, most Americans think that having an abortion is a moral issue. By contrast, the public is much less likely to see other issues involving human embryos – such as stem cell research or in vitro fertilization – as a matter of morality.
Scarlet Letters: Getting the History of Abortion and Contraception Right
If recent legislation passed in Arkansas and North Dakota is allowed to stand, it will be harder for women to get an abortion in those states than it was in New England in 1650.
ND lawmakers define life as starting at conception
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota didn’t set out to become the abortion debate’s new epicenter.
It happened by accident, after a legislative caucus that once vetted abortion bills languished, leaving lawmakers to propose a flurry of measures — some cribbed from Wikipedia — without roadblocks.
Long dismissed as cold and inconsequential, North Dakota is now trying to enact the toughest abortion restrictions in the nation. The newly oil-rich red state may soon find itself in a costly battle over legislation foes describe as blatantly unconstitutional.
“It had to happen some place,” said Sen. John Andrist, a Crosby Republican who has served in the Legislature for more than two decades.
“I’m from the group who hates voting on abortion issues and who don’t like to play God,” said Andrist, who describes himself as “moderately pro-life” and has voted for some but not all of the restrictions North Dakota has taken up this year. “But we have some strong-willed people in this state who do.”
Lawmakers on Friday took a step toward outlawing abortion altogether in the state by passing a so-called personhood resolution that says a fertilized egg has the same right to life as a person. The House’s approval sends the matter to voters, who will decide whether to add the wording to the state’s constitution in November 2014. Read full article.