Talk:abortion

Offense was inherently biased.Superm401 15:38, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I've removed the note claiming that the sense of "inducing abortion" is incorrect as it is incorrect. This is in fact the primary sense in which the term is used, notwithstanding any proclamations by King Knute against the tide. -dmh June 28, 2005 18:43 (UTC)

See: Webster's Medical Dictionary: 84.146.213.216

See: wikipedia article 84.146.213.216

Medical, Reliable, & Reputable Sources
Wikipedia is disputed and it's using consenus instead of an official policy for the definition. Looks more like a group of anti-abortionists trying to impose POV on the page.--Halliburton Shill 21:29, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
 * 1) U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health MedlinePlus encylopedia, "death" is not used: "removing the fetus and placenta from the uterus". Under description, "remove the tissues (fetus and placenta) from the uterus".
 * 2) WebMD Medical Reference from "The Gynecological Sourcebook" - M. Sara Rosenthal, PhD - "Technically, the word abortion simply refers to pregnancy loss before the twentieth week."
 * 3) Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary: "the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus"
 * 4) WebMD Abortion Definition - "Abortion is the premature ending of a pregnancy."
 * 5) From Medical Terminology: An Illustrated Guide, Chapter 15 - The Female Reproductive System; Pregnancy and Birth, p. 398: An abortion is loss of an embryo or fetus before the 20th week of pregnancy or before a weight of 500 g (1.1 lb).
 * 6) "Interruption of pregnancy or expulsion of the product of conception before the fetus is viable is called abortion." "A voluntary induced termination of pregnancy is called an elective abortion...." - Brunner & Suddarth’s Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing, 10th edition, Chapter 46 Assessment and Management of Female Physiologic Processes, p. 1398-1399
 * 7) Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary: "the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus"
 * 8) Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary uses the same definition shown in the Law & Medical, but worth noting is that "death" is not used in their definition of miscarriage.
 * 9) 1911 Encylopedia Britannica uses expulsion, not "death", and the only difference between it and miscarriage is that it is deliberate. This is interesting because this is well before mass-marketed political spin.
 * 10) 1913 Webster Dictionary uses "expulsion ... before it is capable of sustaining life" and does not use "death", but makes clear that abortion at that time was a crime.
 * 11) Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - "the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy". The dictionary says removal, not death.
 * 12) MSN Encarta dictionary "1. An operation to end pregnancy: an operation or other intervention to end a pregnancy by removing an embryo or fetus from the womb. 2. medicine (technical) Same as miscarriage (sense 1)."
 * 13) Stedman's Medical Dictionary, 26th Edition, 1996: "1. Expulsion from the uterus of an embryo or fetus prior to the stage of viability at about 20 weeks of gestation (fetus weighs less than 500 g). A distinction is made between abortion and premature birth: premature infants are those born after the stage of viability but prior to 37 weeks. Abortion may be either spontaneous (occurring from natural causes) or induced (artificial or therapeutic). 2.	The product of such nonviable birth."

Comments subsection

 * I think it is important to point out that we strive to provide definitions of how words are actually used, and there is certainly wide usage where "to abort a fetus" means to cause the death and then remove the fetus. Whether or not this is PC/palatable/agreeable to you or not, it is how the word is used and therefore should be included as such.  There are many words in this dictionary that I choose not to use, or which are used in a way that I don't agree with, but people use them that way and therefore they should be here.  It is not a question of how modern science or Webster's 1913 define something, those are important also, but not exclusively. - TheDaveRoss 21:40, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Doctors are people too. And they have expertise on this particular subject.  With the exception of religious extremists I see on the news, nearly everyone I know directly uses abortion to mean post-conception birth control.  There's no more death in it than a condom causes death to sperm.  Just more bleeding, as tends to be the case anyway with women and their eggs during every month.--Halliburton Shill 20:08, 18 March 2006 (UTC)


 * I did not mean to say that doctors weren't people (nor do I think I did say this), I said people (read: some people, not all, not none) use the term in both ways. Some people use it as doctors or medical journals would use it, some (whether they have religious proclivities or not is moot, religious people are not excluded from being cited as sources) people use it in the other way.  Both should be included, and a usage note to indicate the disparity if need be. - TheDaveRoss 21:17, 19 March 2006 (UTC)


 * To me, it seems like you're putting in a request to redefine balls so that it fits how teenagers tend to use it. I can see an argument for adding a slang/regional/religious note onto an alternative definition.  Just not as a primary defn.


 * What is more valid about the way you use balls than the way teenagers use it? Did the Royal Academy of English prescribe your way?  Didn't think so.  I am not looking for anything to be redefined, I am looking for everything to be fully defined (as fully as possible) in that we include all definitions, not just the ones you like or the ones doctors like or the ones teenagers like or the ones conservative Christians like.  Your reverts are POV, and they should stop until this discussion has come to a conclusion. - TheDaveRoss 12:40, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Requests for verification - kept
Kept. See archived discussion of February 2008. 07:01, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

abortion
The last entry looks off "An unpleasant or poorly executed idea or project.". Pass a Method (talk) 21:52, 18 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I've heard this before. I'd say it could be considered a variant of sense 7 though, since generally no one intends for art to be ugly on purpose, it can only happen when something goes wrong, which is what sense 9 is.  Soap (talk) 13:36, 27 March 2013 (UTC)


 * I've added 3 citations. Equinox ◑ 23:05, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Verified. bd2412 T 17:21, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Apocryphal, possibly regional use of the term
In Boston it was not uncommon to refer to horrible situations -- usually of the epic failure sort -- to be referred to in passing derisively as "abortions," as in "what a f--n abortion that was." A crude search for the phrase "what a f--n abortion" comes up with a number of colloquial uses, apparently some coming from regions of the UK and even elsewhere in northern Europe.

It's close to senses 3 or 4, but distinct in that 1. it doesn't have to be, and usually isn't in reference to a creature, and 2. doesn't have to involve cessation or termination, in fact more often it refers to a setback or a disaster. KeithTyler (talk) 23:51, 14 March 2023 (UTC)


 * Doesn't #4 apply? Or perhaps it could be expanded.  —  Salt  marsh  🢃  20:20, 15 March 2023 (UTC)