ABSTRACT
Few US textbooks in any area of psychology index abortion. In the United States, abortion has led to confrontation and actual violence with physicians and other clinic staff being assaulted and sometimes killed in workplaces and in churches. A comparison of the new landscape of abortion restrictions in the United States, where access to abortion now depends entirely on state laws, reflects the same range of variation encountered worldwide. Abortion based on diagnosis of fetal pathology is legal in France while it is a crime in Brazil, and, consequently, physicians in France are less conflicted about their role in the process than those in Brazil. Objective approaches could include simply listing and discussing all of the cultural dimensions implicated in abortion. Examination of the cognitive and emotional dimensions of the decision can be sharpened by situating it in the context of reversing an ongoing chemically induced abortion.
