When is an Abortion Not an Abortion?

Price J. H. , “Another ‘Choice’ Raises Questions of Ethics, Morality-‘MFPR’ Sparks Debate,” Washington Times, February 10, 1998.

One author wrote, “But does anyone who knows what “selective reduction” is – namely, a fatal injection of potassium chloride or digoxin into the heart of a baby in the 10th to 12th week of life – actually believe it's not an abortion?” Jansen J. , “The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy,” August 12, 2011, available at <http://prolifeaction.org/hotline/2011/selectivereduction/#more-17252> (last visited April 22, 2015); Pawder R. , “The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy,” New York Times, available at <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/magazine/the-two-minus-one-pregnancy.html?_r=4> (last visited July 1, 2015); see also, Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati, available at <http://www.cincinnatirighttolife.org/life-issues/research/selective-reduction/> (last visited April 22, 2015).

According to the Catholic church, “Beyond every confusion and ambiguity, we must therefore affirm that ‘fetal reduction’ is the same as selective abortion.” Pontifical Council for the Family, “On Fetal Reduction in Cases of Multiple Pregnancies,” available at <CatholicCulture.org> (last visited April 22, 2015).

Guttmacher Institute, Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States, July 2014.

See Carbone J. Cahn N. , “The Triple System for Regulating Women's Reproduction,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 43, no. 2 (2015): 275–288 (describing the varying social consequences of pregnancy for women).

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “Multifetal Pregnancy Reduction” (Committee Opinion), February 2013.

See Guttmacher Institute, supra note 4.

Of women who report their reasons for abortion, three-fourths cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals, say they cannot afford a child and/or that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents. Id.

Rao R. , “Selective Reduction: A ‘Soft Cover for Hard Choices’?” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 43, no. 2 (2015): 196–205.

MFPR as used by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in its most recent committee opinion is distinguished from selective reduction, with the former referring to termination procedures in which the physician terminates fetuses based on technical information, such as location in the womb, and the latter referring to terminations based on characteristics such as sex or disability status. See ACOG, supra note 7. Another author refers to embryo reduction, which is conflated with selective termination. Papageorghiou A. T. , “Ethical Considerations in Embryo-Reduction,” Current Obstetrics & Gynaecology 16, no. 3 (2006): 181–184, at 182.

Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al. v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., et al., 573 U.S. (12 in slip opinion) (2014).

Luker K. , Abortion & the Politics of Motherhood (California: University of California Press, 1984): At 7.

Center for Reproductive Rights, The State of the States: Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers in 2013, available at <http://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/CRRStateofStates2013_all.pdf> (last visited July 1, 2015).