Abortion in the United States

==Terminology==
{{main|Definitions of abortion}}
The abortion debate most commonly relates to the [[induced abortion]] of a pregnancy, which is also how the term "abortion" is used in a legal sense.{{refn|According to the Supreme Court's decision in ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' (1973):
{{blockquote|(a) For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman's attending physician.

(b) For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health.

(c) For the stage subsequent to viability, the State in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/410/113/|title=Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)|website=Justia|date=January 22, 1973|access-date=May 12, 2022}}</ref>}}

The 5th edition of the ''[[Black's Law Dictionary]]'' (1979) defined abortion as "knowing destruction" or "intentional expulsion or removal".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Caron|first=Wilfred R.|date=Spring 1982|url=https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2118&context=tcl|title=The Human Life Federalism Amendment – An Assessment|journal=The Catholic Lawyer|volume=27|issue=2|pages=87–111|pmid=11655614 |access-date=May 12, 2022|quote=(5th ed. 1979) ('abortion' is defined simply as 'the knowing destruction of the life of an unborn child or the intentional expulsion or removal of an unborn child from the womb other than for the principal purpose of producing a live birth or removing a dead fetus').|postscript=. At p. 94, footnote 7.}}</ref> Into the 21st century, its free, online version defines it as "artificial or spontaneous termination of a pregnancy before the embryo or foetus can survive on its own outside a woman's uterus."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thelawdictionary.org/abortion/|title=What is abortion|website=The Law Dictionary|date=July 12, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302210544/https://thelawdictionary.org/abortion/|archive-date=March 2, 2021|access-date=May 12, 2022}}</ref>|group=nb}} The terms "elective abortion" and "voluntary abortion" refer to the interruption of pregnancy, before viability, at the request of the woman but not for medical reasons.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Watson |first=Katie |title= Why We Should Stop Using the Term 'Elective Abortion'|journal=AMA Journal of Ethics |volume=20 |issue=12 |pages=1175–1180 |date=December 20, 2019 |doi=10.1001/amajethics.2018.1175 |pmid=30585581 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

In medical parlance, "abortion" can refer to a spontaneous [[miscarriage]] or to an induced miscarriage before the fetus is viable. After viability, doctors call an induced miscarriage a "termination of pregnancy".