In order to understand the abortion problem in America, it is first essential to understand exactly what abortion is. The most common use of the word abortion is defined in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary as the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus: induced expulsion of a human fetus ("Abortion" 1). On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provided a fundamental right for women to obtain an abortion in all fifty states during all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason ("Abortion: Medical Facts" 2). The Supreme Court held that the "right to privacy," established by the Court's precedents in the contraception cases of the 1960's and early 70's, assured the freedom of a person to abort unless the state had a "compelling interest" in preventing the abortion. The Court then held that, though the state had an interest in protecting fetal life, this interest did not become "compelling" until fetal viability occurred in the third trimester of pregnancy ("Overview" 2). Some acceptable reasons to have an abortion are seen in cases of rape, incest, and if there is a threat to the mother or child's life, however only 7 percent of all abortions are performed for these reasons ("Why" 1). The other 93 percent of abortions are obtained for social reasons only, such as relationship problems and feelings of being unready for a baby ("Why" 1). According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, 82 percent of women getting abortions are unmarried, over half of them are poor, and 60 percent of them already have one child ("30 Years Later" 4). Hispanics obtain abortions two times more often than Caucasians, while African-Americans obtain them nearly four times more often ("30 Years Later" 4). Also, it is twice as likely for women who have an annual income of less than $15,000 to obtain an abortion, compared to women in the general population ("Abortion Common" 6).
