Citation

Watson K. AMA J. Ethics 2018; 20(12): E1175-1180.

Affiliation

An associate professor of medical social sciences, medical education, and obstetrics and gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, where she is also a faculty member in the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Graduate Program.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/amajethics.2018.1175

PMID

30585581

Abstract

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.

© 2018 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.

Language: en