Can you recommend research resources on abortion?

[CBHagman]

I would be interested in learning more about the medical, historical and sociological aspects of abortion. Yes, I've read various articles about the period in the U.S. prior to Roe v. Wade, and I know something about abortion procedures, but my general background in abortion matters is fairly limited. My main goal is to get dispassionate, scientific resources, nothing related to one ideology or the other.

I've found, via Google, some resources from the Alan Guttmacher Institute and various organizations and media outlets, but can anyone suggest additional online resources? Thank you in advance.

[theblasmo]

1. Do NOT Use...

...Abortionfacts.com. It is a anti-choice website that is disguised as a neutral, fact-providing website. It's notorious because it's usually the first thing students hit on a Google search using "abortion facts", and it always slants their papers. Planned Parenthood's website is pretty good, but make sure you look around any website on abortion to check its politics. Pro-Choice websites are more likely to provide legit, semi-neutral information.

[SlackJawedYokel]

2. AGI, the CDC and PP are probably

your best bet.
Not that presenting information from *any* of them will be construed as legitimate by Anti-choicers... they think the CDC is "pro-choice".

Eileen has done a good job of collecting some relevant links and constructing arguments of her own.
(I had a bunch of really good links but JAMA requires a membership now)

But if you're willing to pay the price, the Journal of the American Medical Association and New England Journal of Medicine have excellent factual articles.
As does the American Medical Association.

For articles on abortion law:
http://hometown.aol.com/abtrbng/index.htm

Reasons for medical abortions(some of the pics can be disturbing):
http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/PRENATAL/PRENATAL.html#1

Unfortunately, most of your job will be wading thru the propaganda to get through to the truth... like the link to breast cancer which doesn't exist... like Post Abortion Syndrome, which only seems to exist in fundamentalist christian women who are guilt-barraged by crisis pregnancy center "counselors".

Other places to look:
http://www.rcrc.org/
http://www.drtiller.com/bk1.html
www.religioustolerance.org
http://ethics.sandiego.edu/Applied/Abortion/index.html

Good luck.

Cletus

[CBHagman]

3. Thanks for the input!

By the way, regarding any site connected to the federal government, I've heard so much about the current administration completely politicizing anything science- and/or health-related that I'm concerned about even a slant on CDC. But I'll check out the info you've suggested.

Thanks again!

[put out]

4. I don't know if I'd consider the CDC site slanted, but

our current administration seems to have had a hand in the omission of facts which do not support administration policies. My opinion is, what's there on the site is reliable, and has some very good science and research and is understandable to a layman. Not slanted, but incomplete.

My opinion. Good luck, and I fear you are going to find all sorts of loony stuff in your search. Ah well, it's all education.

Kim

2nd thought, I suppose the omission of legitimate research and science does constitute a slant. I still use it for information. I do this, though, knowing where reproductive health is concerned, information is missing. Very sad, these are my tax dollars.

[Jackie97]

6. Basically, what you have to do....

Is read information from a variety of sources and sort them out. You have to think for yourself what all the information means and where an expert might have a slant somewhere. You might find that the majority of health experts are openly disagreeing with Bush's ideas, so there might not be a big slant in those sources.

[Jackie97]

5. World Health Organization.

It helps to have an unbiased source that talks about abortion in both this country and others. It's good to compare notes because you learn a lot that way.

This link has a lot of great information.

http://www.who.int/archives/whday/en/pages1998/whd98_10.html

It appears to only talk about unsafe abortion, but it has a lot of good points in there to use in any argument you make in favor of abortion rights.

I might think of others later. Planned Parenthood and AGI are also good, but people think of them as biased.

[BillCarson]

7. Abortion Law Links

I'm new here at DU. Mainly I post at CGCS. Here are some links
I've gathered mostly on abortion law (in US and the World)

World abortion laws (center for reproductive rights)
http://www.crlp.org/pub_fac_abortion_laws.html

World abortion laws (Harvard)
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/population/

AMA
http://www.ama-assn.org/

French abortion laws (mirror)
http://www.republicanspeak.com/franceabortion.html

Text of Roe v Wade (mirror)
http://www.republicanspeak.com/roevwade.html

My own website (world abortion laws and republicans)(biased!)
http://www.republicanspeak.com/abortion1.html

Hope this helps.