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Health Law and Policy

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University of Dayton

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Built In Obsolescence: The Coming End To The Abortion Debate, Vernellia R. Randall, Tshaka C. Randall Jan 2008

Built In Obsolescence: The Coming End To The Abortion Debate, Vernellia R. Randall, Tshaka C. Randall

Vernellia R. Randall

The current legal and political dispute is grounded in the misconception that the decision to have an abortion is one decision, a decision to terminate a fetus. In fact, in choosing an abortion, a woman is actually making two distinct choices: first, she is choosing to terminate her pregnancy, that is, remove the fetus from her body; and, second, she is choosing to terminate the fetus. Currently, a woman’s decision to remove the fetus from her body (the “autonomy decision”) is necessarily a medical decision to terminate the fetus (the “reproductive decision”). The current argument in favor of legalized abortion …