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Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law [MPECCoL]

Abortion

Radhika Rao

Content type:
Encyclopedia entries
Product:
Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law [MPECCoL]
Article last updated:
September 2016

From: Oxford Constitutions (http://oxcon.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 13 May 2025

Subject(s):
Abortion — Gender discrimination — Right to life — Individual rights — Women

General Editors: Rainer Grote, Frauke Lachenmann, Rüdiger Wolfrum
Managing Editor: Martina Mantovani

1. Abortion is commonly defined as the intentional termination of pregnancy with reasonable knowledge that such termination will cause the death of the embryo (embryos and embryonic stem cells) or fetus. Yet this definition masks a fundamental ambiguity regarding what qualifies as an abortion. If pregnancy is determined to commence at fertilization rather than implantation, many forms of contraception would be included within the meaning of abortion. Moreover, new methods of early medical abortion by means of a pill rather than surgery further blur the line...
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