Results of the Survey on Abortion

I would like to thank you all for taking your time to answer my survey. I made a slide show which summarizes the results of the survey. If you have any questions, please  leave a comment  in the commenting area on this blog.


Results of the Survey on Abortion

The costs of an abortion

The cost of a first trimester abortion is about $350 to $900 for an in-clinic procedure, and between $350 to $650 for a medication abortion, which has to be done within 9 weeks. Abortions in hospitals cost even more. Beyond 13 weeks, it becomes extremely difficult to find a provider willing to perform a second trimester abortion. Plus, it becomes even more expensive than a first trimester abortion.

Lowen , Linda. "How Much Does an Abortion Cost?." About.com Women. New York Times Company, 04Oc. Web. 16 Jul 2012. <http://womensissues.about.com/od/abortion/f/Abortion-Cost-How-Much-Does-An-Abortion-Cost.htm>.

My image of abortion

My image of abortion is something people do when they can't give birth to a baby. For example, a teenage girl gets pregnant and she and her boyfriend can't afford to raise the baby. Another example is if giving birth might effect the mother's health (or life). I think abortion is necessary, but this is because of the society we live in. We need money to raise a baby. Abortion is an issue that still needs a lot of discussion.

A pro-life group

I found a pro-life group called the "40 Days for Life". This group holds community-based campaigns that tells people about the consequences they may face if they have an abortion. The name of this group comes from the bible, where the period of 40 days comes out several times such as in Noah's Ark. This group has most of it's campaigns in America and through those campaigns, 23 abortion centers closed following these campaigns. 40 Days for Life has been up since 2007 and also has had campaigns in cities in Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belize, Denmark, England, Georgia, Germany, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Puerto Rico and Spain. Their next campaign will be from September 26 to November 4. 

"40 Days for Life." . 40 Days for Life, 2012. Web. 15 Jul 2012. <http://www.40daysforlife.com/>.

The number of abortions in Japan

In 2005,there were about 290,000 abortions in Japan. This number is decreasing year by year, but is still a high number. This number is 21.4% of all the pregnancies in the country.  This percentage is also going down yearly, but only by a little. I think the number of abortions per year is decreasing because the number of people getting pregnant is decreasing. Therefore the number of the people having abortions is decreasing along with it. The reason why the number of pregnancies is decreasing is most likely because of the change in the society. Unlike in the past, woman have more freedom and have more opportunities to work like men do. Therefore, marriage and having a household isn't the only thing for woman anymore.


Johnston, Robert. "Historical abortion statistics, Japan." johnstonsarchive. Robert Johnston, 21 N. Web. 10 Jul 2012. <http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/ab-japan.html>

Comparing 2 countries with different laws on abortion

I would like to compare the laws in the United States of America and the country I talked about in the last blog entry, Afghanistan. In the US, it is legal to have an abortion, but individual states can make state-by-state laws on abortion. Therefore, some states have regulations that even have penalties. For example, in Louisiana it is illegal to have an abortion, except in the case in which the mother's health would be in danger. If you break that law, you would go into prison for up to 10 years and a fine of a maximum of $100,000. Comparing these 2 countries, Afghanistan is strict with this issue, but allows it in a specific case, but the United States has an overall law of it being legal to have abortions except in some states. I think this is because of differences between religious beliefs. In the Islam, their beliefs are based on the Old Testament, which has a strict teaching (ten commandments). Compared to that, America is more free in religion, so it doesn't restrict such issues as much.


"Find Law." Louisiana abortion laws. Thomson Reuters business, 2012. Web. 8 Jul 2012. <http://law.findlaw.com/state-laws/abortion/louisiana/>.

A country where abortion is legal

It is legal in Afghanistan to have an abortion only when the pregnancy might endanger the mother's health. Other cases (such as rape or request by mother) is not acceptable. In the Islam beliefs, it is forbidden to kill a person, but it doesn't say any specific details about abortion. Because of this, there are various interpretations made by different countries. Therefore, I think that Afghanistan thought the lives of the mothers were important and to make them give birth with the sacrifice of their lives would make doctors a murderer. In result, they decided to make it legal to have abortions only if the process of giving birth might affect the mother's life.

"Summary of abortion laws around the world." Summary of abortion laws around the world. Pregnant pause, 2010. Web. 3 Jul 2012. <http://www.pregnantpause.org/lex/world02.jsp>. 

 Syed, I.. "Abortion In Islam." Abortion in islam. Islami Research Foundation Inc., 2000. Web. 3 Jul 2012. <http://www.islamawareness.net/FamilyPlanning/Abortion/abortion3.html>.

Yahoo! Groups

Here's another Yahoo! group. It is called Lavender Skies - You're Not Alone. This group talks about all sorts of controversial issues, which includes abortion. It has 2429 members (on June 22, 2012) and was September 3, 2002. The most recent post about abortion was from a girl who had an abortion and was feeling guilty about it.

Yahoo! Group

Here's a discussion group from Yahoo! Group called Abortion is a Crime (Pro-Life). This group is a pro-life group debates about abortion. Recently, this group usually posts news articles about abortion. It has 188 members (on June 6, 2012) and was founded on June 24, 2005. Since this group is pro-life, the articles in the posts are pro-life articles as well. The group owner, Steven Ertelt posts most of the posts, but frequently posts new ones, so the group is quite active. This group might be useful to find news articles/stories about abortion.

The first practice of abortion

The first recorded practiced of abortion was in B.C. 1550 in Egypt. This was recorded in an ancient  medical text called the Ebers Papyrus. In the Ebers Papyrus, it suggests the use of a plant-fiber tampon coated with a compound that included honey and crushed dates when having an abortion. It also mentions a herbal abortifacient called pennyroyal, which is sometimes used in abortions. Yet this pennyroyal is toxic and is not a safe way to induct an abortion.

Head, T.. "When Did Abortion Begin?." Civilliberty.about.com. About.com, 2012. Web. 13 Jun 2012. <http://civilliberty.about.com/od/abortion/f/When-Did-Abortion-Begin.htm>.

Another word cloud

Here's another word cloud. Try looking at it first without looking at the analysis below nor the site and guess what the sites about.

In this word cloud, the words "Abortion", "Procedure", "Medical", "Clinic", "Pregnancy", "Dilators", "Appointment", "Options" come out in big words. As I said in the last blog entry, the bigger the word in a word cloud, the more frequently that word comes up in the original text. So, this site is about abortion and it includes information about medical precedures/options and clinics. You can also find words like "Doctor" and "Risks", which point out that this site is talking from a medical point of view and is explaining about the options when you get pregnant, the procedures of abortion and risks from surgical methods. Therefore, this is a site that provides information about abortion, which may be considered as "for" abortion.


. "Types of Abortion Procedures." Fwhc services. Feminist Women, 2011. Web. 13 Jun 2012. <http://www.fwhc.org/abortion/ab-procedures.htm>.

A word cloud

I'm sure everyone knows what a word cloud is, so I won't be explaining what it is. This is a word cloud I made using a site called Tagxedo.com.

It is from the text from a site(citation at end of entry) written about Catholic thoughts. As you can see, the words "Abortion","Murder","Life", "Church", "Law", "Child" come up as big words. This shows that this site uses these words frequently. So from this, in Catholic beliefs, abortion is considered an act of murder and to kill a child in the womb is sinful. It is said in the old testament that a child in the womb has a soul and to kill one with a soul is sinful. The word "Law" refers to the ten comandments and you can find words in the cloud such as adultery, murder, and didache that are forbidden in the ten commandments. Looking from the word cloud above and looking at facts from the bible, your can tell that this (catholic) site is "against" abortion.

 Brom, R.. "Catholic Answers: Abortion." Catholic answers. Catholic.com, 2004. Web. 13 Jun 2012. <http://www.catholic.com/tracts/abortion>.

List of questions about abortion part 1

1. When was abortion first practice?
2. Name a country where abortion is legal.
3. Why do you think it is legal in that country?
4. Compare 2 countries with different laws about abortion.
5. How many abortions cases are there in Japan per year?
6. Is that number increasing or decreasing?
7. Why do you think so?
8. Are there any groups that are against abortion?
9. Are there any groups that support abortion?
10. What kind of people do you think would have an abortion?
11. What is your image of abortion?
12. Are there any books/movies that focuses on abortion?
13. Are there famous stories about abortion that isn't published ?
14. How much does it cost to have an abortion?
15. Are there any differences depending on the case?