Abortion in American hospitals.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
With minor exceptions the laws in all 50 states permit abortion only "if necessary to preserve the life of the mother." Yet, as medicine has progressed, it has become apparent that considerations other than the preservation of maternal life are involved in the practice of abortion. The principal indications for therapeutic abortions today are rubella and psychiatric disease. The overall abortion-delivery ratio in the USA is 1:500, whereas in Scandinavia it is 1:20 and in Japan 1:1. One of the medical factors responsible for our low rate is the establishment of the therapeutic abortion boards. The board at Sloane Hospital in New York City, for example, resulted in reducing the abortion rate by one third. Individuals and organizations have recently recognized the enormity of this problem and to recommend the abortion law reform necessary as a 1st step in its solution. All of these groups have given public support to proposals at least as liberal as that recommended by the American Law Institute in its Model Penal Code, which provides that abortion should be permitted when the mother''s mental or physical health is endangered, when there is a significant risk of fetal deformity, and in cases of rape and incest.

This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit: