2018/12/01 by Katie Watson · 1 citation
Medicine · #Reproductive Health and Contraception #Reproductive Health and Technologies #Global Maternal and Child Health
paper · pdf · doi:10.1001/amajethics.2018.1175
openalex publication_date 2018/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
In abortion care, the term "elective" is often used as a moral judgment that determines which patients are entitled to care. Secular health care organizations that attempt to avoid controversy by allowing "therapeutic" but not "elective" abortions are using medical terminology to reinforce regressive social norms concerning motherhood and women's sexuality because what distinguishes pregnant women with medical indications for abortion is that they originally wanted to become mothers or, in cases of rape, that they did not consent to sex. Secular health care organizations should stop denying the moral agency of patients and physicians who conclude abortion is morally acceptable and should only use the word elective when billing codes require it. Regardless of reason, the proper label for all abortion is health care.