Abstract
Approximately a quarter of women in the USA will have an abortion during their lives. 1 Jones RK Jerman J Population group abortion rates and lifetime incidence of abortion: United States, 2008–2014. Am J Public Health. 2017; 107: 1904-1909 Crossref PubMed Scopus (152) Google Scholar Most of the US population endorses the right to abortion. 2 Bumpass LL The measurement of public opinion on abortion: the effects of survey design. Fam Plann Perspect. 1997; 29: 177-180 Crossref PubMed Scopus (36) Google Scholar The US Supreme Court supported that right in its 1973 Roe versus Wade decision. Nevertheless, voters have elected legislators, and a President, determined to outlaw abortion. An unrelenting succession of state and national laws restricting abortion have been passed. 3 Guttmacher Institute https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/state-facts-about-abortionDate accessed: June 27, 2018 Google Scholar They include limitations on gestational age; requirements that abortion facilities be equipped like fully fledged surgical centres and that physicians performing abortions have admitting privileges to hospitals; waiting periods for patients; parental notification or consent; unnecessary diagnostic procedures; outdated regimens for medical abortions; and misleading, incomplete, and false statements that doctors are required to make to women who are about to undergo abortions (eg, that abortion increases the risk of suicide or breast cancer). The expert opinions of the professional associations of gynaecologists and psychiatrists have been disregarded. How is it that a population of citizens and experts favouring abortion rights chooses a government opposed to those rights?
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