e subject of this paper.
The issue of induced abortions, never long out of the news, has become even more important recently because of the legalization in the United States of RU-486, which allows for non-surgical abortions, which makes "abortion on demand" all the easier to get.
But several years ago, the argument for abortion-on-demand shifted from denying the existence of human life to arguing that it's an issue of rights. Thus, the argument goes, a woman can make whatever choices she wants and society be damned -- which makes an abortion drug only one more option (Staley, http://www.thecompassnews.org/compass/2000-10-06/00cn1006c4.htm).
It is important to note that not all abortions are induced. Abortion is actually a more general term referring to the termination of pregnancy before birth that either causes, or is accompanied by, the death of the fetus. Thousands of abortions occur naturally in the United States each year either because the fetus is not developing normally and so is rejected by the mother's body (this happens in a number of mammals) or because the mother is injured, or becomes ill, or has some pre-existing or underlying disorder that her from carrying the pregnancy to term.
This type of abortion is called a spontaneous abortion within the medical literature, although it is more commonly called a miscarriage by most people. There is very little if any ethical concern over it (unless the miscarriage is caused by what some consider to be irresponsible behavior on the part of the mother). If a woman miscarries because she contracts a serious case of
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