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Article 5


Book Cover
Author(s) Kristen Simmons
Country USA
Language English
Series Trilogy
Genre(s) Dystopian Fiction
Publisher Tor Teen
Publication date January 2012
Media type Novel
Pages 364
ISBN 978-0-7653-2958-5
Article 5 is a 2012 young adult dystopian novel by Kristen Simmons. The book was published in January 2012 by Tor Teen and is the first installment in a trilogy. The novel tells the story of Ember Miller and Chase Jennings, two teenagers who are on the run from the government in a post-War dystopian America.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Plot Summary
2 Character List
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links
[edit]Plot Summary

A war has torn through America, leading to the implementing of the Federal Bureau of Reformation and a re-writing of the Bill of Rights, leaving the Moral Statues. Women that break Article 5 and have children out of wedlock are taken away and imprisoned, as is the case with Ember Miller's mother. The FBR have captured the two of them and have sent Ember to the Girls Reformatory and Rehabilitation Center of West Virginia. There Ember attempts and fails to escape, only succeeding when her old love interest Chase intervenes and runs away with her to Virginia. There they have plans to go to a safehouse where Ember's mom is supposedly located, only to find the man who was supposed to transport them has been shot by the FBR. Before he dies, he tells the two teens of a carrier in West Virginia that could help them. Ember and Chase seek temporary solace at a farmer's house after rescuing his son, only for the farmer to report Chase as being AWOL. Ember overhears the call and the two escape.
The two later learn of a carrier and underground system in their former hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, which prompts them to return in the hopes of finding escape. As they grow closer to the town, they learn that the town is in the process of being closed off to create a base for the FBR and that the streets are full of people that are either homeless or working for the FBR. Chase and Ember are separated when a scuffle for food turns into a riot and Ember is grabbed by Sean Banks, a member of the local resistance.
Ember informs Sean of her time at the reformatory and of his girlfriend Rebecca that was placed there with her. She then goes to sleep but is woken by the sounds of Chase and the Resistance talking about recruitment. Ember then learns that the ones who break Article 5 are killed and that Chase had been forced to kill her mother. She later leave the Resistance hideout and is captured and taken to the Knoxville Detention Center. A member of the center, Tucker Morris, attempts to bribe Ember into revealing Chase's location, to which she refuses. As punishment Ember is placed on cleaning duty and tolerates Tucker's molestation of her in order to learn news of her friend Rebecca, who has been placed in a Chicago reformatory. Ember begins to make plans to escape, which are interrupted due to Chase breaking into the detention center to free her. The two manage to escape and the book ends with Ember and Chase lying together on the roof of the Resistance's headquarters.
[edit]Character List

Ember Miller: A seventeen-year-old girl and the main character of the story that sets out to save her mother from the FBR. It is mentioned that she and Chase have had a romantic relationship when they were younger.
Chase Jennings: An old neighbor and former romantic interest of Ember’s, Chase is now a FBR soldier that goes AWOL to assist Ember and get her to a safehouse.
Sean Banks: A member of the Knoxville Resistance, Sean assists Ember in her attempt to jump over the reformatory wall.
Beth: One of Ember's friends from childhood.
[edit]Reception

Article 5 received mixed reviews when it came to the plot and the characters,[2] with a reviewer for Tor.com calling it a “provocative, terrifying, frustrating” book, as described by Michael Jones.[3] Wired stated that the book was a fun read but that the enjoyment would depend "on your taste in books and politics".[4]
[edit]References

^ Cheney, Amy. "The Debut—Kristen Simmons's 'Article 5'". School Library Journal. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
^ "Review: Article 5". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
^ Jones, Michael (March 3, 2012). "Constitution Revoked". Tor.
^ Liu, Jonathan. "Dystopian YA Novels: It’s the End of the World as We Know It…". Wired. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
[edit]External links

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Mexican people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Mexicans)
For a specific analysis of the population of Mexico, see Demographics of Mexico. For a more precise analysis on the nationality and identity of Mexico, see Mexican nationality law.

Mexicans
Mexicanos






Pictured:
Miguel Hidalgo · Agustin de Iturbide · Juan Rulfo · Emiliano Zapata · Octavio Paz · Benito Juárez · Rodolfo Neri Vela · Juana Ines de la Cruz · Porfirio Díaz · Jorge Negrete · Pancho Villa · Pedro Infante · Ximena Navarrete · Guillermo González Camarena · Carlos Fuentes · Carlos Slim · Salma Hayek · Luis Miguel ·
Total population
World
±142,000,000
Regions with significant populations
Mexico 111,211,789
United States 33,557,922 a [1]
Canada ~61.505 b [2]
Spain ~21.107 c [3]
Germany ~9.225 [4]
Italy ~6.798 [5]
Brazil ~6.625 [6]
United Kingdom ~5.297 [7]
Paraguay ~4.187 [8]
Costa Rica ~4.000 [9]
Netherlands ~3.758 [10]
Cuba ~2.757 [11]
Israel ~2.100 [12]
Belize ~2.000 [13]
Argentina ~1.890 [14]
Chile ~1.876 [15]
Languages
Spanish, English and 62 indigenous linguistic groups of Amerindian languages.
Religion
Mostly Christianity (Majority Roman Catholicism, minority Protestantism), also Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Paganism, other religions, and no religion
Footnotes
a Mexican American
b Mexican Canadian
c Mexicans in Spain
d Mexicans in the United Kingdom
Mexican people (Spanish: Pueblo mexicano (collective), Mexicanos (individuals)) refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity.
Mexico became a nation in 1821 when Mexico achieved independence from the Spanish Empire; this began the process of forging a Mexican national identity that fused the cultural traits of indigenous pre-Columbian origin with those of European, particularly Iberian, ancestry. This led to what has been termed "a peculiar form of multi-ethnic nationalism"[16]
The most spoken language by Mexicans is Mexican Spanish, but many also speak languages from 62 different indigenous linguistic groups and other languages brought to Mexico by recent immigration or learned by Mexican immigrants residing in other nations. Over 78% of the Mexican people live in Mexico but there is a sizable diaspora with nearly 22% living in the United States.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Definitions
3 Ethnicity
3.1 1921 Census
3.2 Today
4 Population genetics
5 Languages
6 See also
7 Works cited
8 References
9 Further reading
History

This section requires expansion. (January 2010)
The Mexican people have varied origins and an identity that has evolved with the succession of conquests among Amerindian groups and by Europeans. The area that is now modern-day Mexico has cradled many predecessor civilizations, going back as far as the Olmec which influenced the latter civilizations of Teotihuacan (200 B.C. to 700 A.D.) and the much debated Toltec people who flourished around the 10th and 12th centuries A.D., and ending with the last great indigenous civilization before the Spanish Conquest, the Aztecs (March 13, 1325 to August 13, 1521). The Nahuatl language was a common tongue in the region of modern Central Mexico during the Aztec Empire, but after the arrival of Europeans the common language of the region became Spanish.
After the conquest of the Aztec empire, the Spanish re-administered the land and expanded their own empire beyond the former boundaries of the Aztec, adding more territory to the Mexican sphere of influence which remained under the Spanish Crown for 300 years. Cultural diffusion and intermixing among the Amerindian populations with the European created the modern Mexican identity which is a mixture of regional indigenous and European cultures that evolved into a national culture during the Spanish Colonial period. This new identity was defined as "Mexican" shortly after the Mexican War of Independence and was more invigorated and developed after the Mexican Revolution when the Constitution of 1917 officially established Mexico as an indivisible pluricultural nation founded on its indigenous roots.
Definitions

This section requires expansion. (January 2010)
See also: Toponymy of Mexico
Mexicano (Mexican) is derived from the word Mexico itself. In the principal model to create demonyms in Spanish, the suffix -ano is added to the name of the place of origin. The term Mexicano as a word to describe the different peoples of the region of Mexico as a single group emerged in the 16th century. In that time the term did not apply to a nationality nor to the geographical limits of the modern Mexican Republic. The term was used for the first time in the first document printed in Barcelona in 1566 which documented the expedition which launched from the port in Acapulco to find the best route which would favor a return journey from the Spanish East Indies to New Spain. The document stated: "el venturoso descubrimiento que los Mexicanos han hecho" (the venturous discovery that the Mexicans have made). That discovery led to the Manila galleon trade route and those "Mexicans" referred to Criollos, Mestizos and Amerindians alluding to a plurality of persons who participated for a common end: the conquest of the Philippines in 1565. (Gómez M., et al. 56)
Ethnicity

See also: Ethnography of Mexico


Totonac face with a smile and closed eyes.


Mayan mask.


A drawing of a cavalryman in New Spain (Mexico)


Human races in New Spain and Mestizo baby in Diego Rivera's picture.
1921 Census
The Mexican Government asked Mexicans about their perception of their own racial heritage. In the 1921 census, residents of the Mexican Republic were asked if they fell into one of the following categories:[17]
"Indígena pura" (of pure indigenous heritage)
"Indígena mezclada con blanca" (of mixed indigenous and white heritage)
"Blanca" (of White or Spanish heritage)
"Extranjeros sin distinción de razas" (Foreigners without racial distinction)
"Cualquiera otra o que se ignora la raza" (Either other or chose to ignore the race)
Pure indigenous heritage: 4,179,449 {29%}
Mixed indigenous and white: 8,504,561 {59%}
White or Spanish heritage: 1,404,718 (10%)
Total population: 14,334,780
The Most Indigenous State was Oaxaca with 675,119 persons out of 976,005 inhabitants were classified as indígena. This meant that 69.17% of Oaxaca's population had a pure indigenous identity.[18]
The states With the Largest "Indígena Mezclada {Mestizo} Con Blanca" Population and in terms of percentages were:
Jalisco - 903,830 (75.83%)
Guanajuato - 828,724 (96.33%)
Michoacán - 663,391 (70.59%)
Veracruz - 556,472 (47.97%)
Distrito Federal - 496,359 (54.78%)
México - 422,001 (47.71%)
Puebla - 403,221 (39.34%)
Sinaloa - 335,474 (98.30%)
Zacatecas - 326,615 (86.10%)
Hidalgo - 320,250 (51.47%)
The states with the largest populations of "Blanca" or White persons were:
Distrito Federal - 206,514
Chihuahua - 145,926
Sonora - 115,151
Veracruz - 114,150
México - 88,660
In terms of percentage, the "blanca" classification was most prominent in these states:
Sonora (41.85%)
Chihuahua (36.33%)
Baja California Sur (33.40%)
Tabasco (27.56%)
Distrito Federal (22.79%)
This was the last Mexican Census which asked people to self-identify themselves with a racial group.
Today
Ethnic relations in modern Mexico have grown out of the historical context of the arrival of Europeans, the subsequent colonial period of cultural and genetic miscegenation within the frame work of the castas system, the revolutionary periods focus on incorporating all ethnic and racial group into a common Mexican national identity and the indigenous revival of the late 20th century. The resulting picture has been called ""a peculiar form of multi-ethnic nationalism".[16]
Very generally speaking ethnic relations can be arranged on an axis between the two extremes of European and Amerindian cultural heritage, this is a remnant of the colonial Spanish caste system which categorized individuals according to their perceived level of biological mixture between the two groups. Additionally the presence of considerable portions of the population with partly African and Asian heritage further complicates the situation.[19] Even though it still arranges persons along the line between indigenous and European, in practice the classificatory system is no longer biologically based, but rather mixes socio-cultural traits with phenotypical traits, and classification is largely fluid, allowing individuals to move between categories and define their ethnic and racial identities situationally.[20][21]
 
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Weed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about plants specifically called weeds. For other uses, see Weed (disambiguation).
The term weed is used in a variety of senses, generally centering around a plant that is not desired within a certain context. The term weed is a subjective one, without any classification value, since a plant that is a weed in one context is not a weed when growing where it belongs or is wanted. Indeed, a number of plants that many consider "weeds", are often intentionally grown by people in gardens or other cultivated-plant settings. Therefore, a weed is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance. The word commonly is applied to unwanted plants in human-controlled settings, especially farm fields and gardens, but also lawns, parks, woods, and other areas. More vaguely, "weed" is applied to any plants that grow and reproduce aggressively and invasively.[1] The term weed has also been generalized to any species, not just plants, that can live in diverse environments and reproduce quickly, and the term has even been applied to humans.[2]
weed: "A herbaceous plant not valued for use or beauty, growing wild and rank, and regarded as cumbering the ground or hindering the growth of superior vegetation... Applied to a shrub or tree, especially to a large tree, on account of its abundance in a district... An unprofitable, troublesome, or noxious growth."
-- The New shorter Oxford English dictionary on historical principles[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Ecological role
2 Dispersal
3 Competition with cultivated and endemic plants
4 Benefits of weed species
5 Weeds as adaptable species
6 Role in mass extinctions
7 Plants often considered to be weeds
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
Ecological role



A dandelion is a common plant all over the world, especially in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. It is a well-known example of a plant that is considered a weed in some contexts (such as lawns) but not a weed in others (such as when it is used as a leaf vegetable or herbal medicine).
Weeds generally share similar adaptations that give them advantages and allow them to proliferate in disturbed environments whose soil or natural vegetative cover has been damaged. Different types of habitat and disturbances will result in colonization by different communities of weed species.[4]
Naturally occurring disturbed environments include dunes and other windswept areas with shifting soils, alluvial flood plains, river banks and deltas, and areas that are often burned. Since human agricultural practices often mimic these natural environments where weedy species have evolved, weeds have adapted to grow and proliferate in human-disturbed areas such as agricultural fields, lawns, roadsides, and construction sites. The weedy nature of these species often gives them an advantage over more desirable crop species because they often grow quickly and reproduce quickly, have seeds that persist in the soil seed bank for many years, or have short lifespans with multiple generations in the same growing season. Perennial weeds often have underground stems that spread out under the soil surface or, like ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), have creeping stems that root and spread out over the ground.[5]
Some plants become dominant when introduced into new environments because they are freed from specialist consumers; in what is sometimes called the “natural enemies hypothesis,” plants freed from these specialist consumers may increase their competitive ability. In locations where predation and mutual competitive relationships no longer exist, some plants are able to increase allocation of resources into growth or reproduction. The weediness of some species that are introduced into new environments can be caused by the introduction of new chemicals; sometimes called the "novel weapons hypothesis," these introduced allelopathyic chemicals, which indigenous plants are not yet adapted to, may limit the growth of established plants or the germination and growth of seeds and seedlings.[6][7]
Dispersal

Weed seeds are often collected and transported with crops after the harvesting of grains. Many weed species have moved out of their natural geographic locations and have spread around the world with humans. (See Invasive species.) Not all weeds have the same ability to damage crops and horticultural plants or cause harm to animals. Some have been classified as noxious weeds by governmental authorities because if left unchecked, they often dominate the environment where crop plants are to be grown or cause harm to livestock. They are often foreign species mistakenly or accidentally imported into a region where there are few natural controls to limit their population and spread. Many weeds have ideal locations for growth and reproduction because of the large areas of open soil created by the conversion of land to field agriculture. Farming practices that produce unvegetated soils part of the year and human distribution of food crops mixed with seeds of weeds from other parts of the world have facilitated the colonization of vast new areas for many weedy species; humans are the vector of transport and the producer of disturbed environments, thus many weedy species have an ideal association with humans.[citation needed]
Competition with cultivated and endemic plants



700 cattle that were killed overnight by a poisonous weed.[8]
As long as humans have cultivated plants, weeds have been a problem. Weeds have even been mentioned in religious and literature texts like the following quotes from Genesis and a Shakespearean sonnet:
"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground,"[9]
"To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds: But why thy odour matcheth not thy show, The soil is this, that thou dost common grow."[10]
Weeds may be unwanted for a number of reasons. An important one is that they interfere with food and fiber production in agriculture, wherein they must be controlled in order to prevent lost or diminished crop yields. Other important reasons are that they interfere with other cosmetic, decorative, or recreational goals, such as in lawns, landscape architecture, playing fields, and golf courses. Similarly, they can be of concern for environmental reasons whereby introduced species out-compete for resources or space with desired endemic plants. For all these reasons; horticulture, both functional and cosmetic, and environmental, - weeds interfere by:
competing with the desired plants for the resources that a plant typically needs, namely, direct sunlight, soil nutrients, water, and (to a lesser extent) space for growth;
providing hosts and vectors for plant pathogens, giving them greater opportunity to infect and degrade the quality of the desired plants;
providing food or shelter for animal pests such as seed-eating birds and Tephritid fruit flies that otherwise could hardly survive seasonal shortages;[11]
offering irritation to the skin or digestive tracts of people or animals, either physical irritation via thorns, prickles, or burs, or chemical irritation via natural poisons or irritants in the weed (for example, the poisons found in Nerium species);[12]
causing root damage to engineering works such as drains, road surfaces, and foundations, [13]blocking streams and rivulets[14].
In weed ecology some authorities speak of the relationship between "the three Ps": plant, place, perception. These have been very variously defined, but the weed traits listed by H.G. Baker are widely cited.[15][16]
 
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Benefits of weed species

"What would the world be, once bereft,
of wet and wildness? Let them be left.
O let them be left; wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet."
-- Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem Inversnaid
A number of weeds, such as the dandelion Taraxacum, are edible, and their leaves and roots may be used for food or herbal medicine. Burdock is common over much of the world, and is sometimes used to make soup and other medicine in East Asia. These so-called "beneficial weeds" may have other beneficial effects, such as drawing away the attacks of crop-destroying insects, but often are breeding grounds for insects and pathogens that attack other plants. The dandelion is one of several species which break up hardpan in overly cultivated fields, helping crops grow deeper root systems. Some modern species of domesticated flower originated as weeds in cultivated fields and have been bred into garden plants for their flowers or foliage. An example of a crop weed that is grown in gardens is the corncockle, Agrostemma, which was a common field weed exported from Europe along with wheat, but is now sometimes grown as a garden plant.[17]
Some people have appreciated weeds for their tenacity, their wildness and even the work and connection to nature they provide. As Christopher Lloyd wrote in The Well-Tempered Garden
"Many gardeners will agree that hand-weeding is not the terrible drudgery that it is often made out to be. Some people find in it a kind of soothing monotony. It leaves their minds free to develop the plot for their next novel or to perfect the brilliant repartee with which they should have encountered a relative's latest example of unreasonableness."[18]
Shunryu Suzuki, the Zen master, is credited with proclaiming, "For Zen students, a weed is a treasure."
Weeds as adaptable species

"We've got to be one of the most bomb-proof species on the planet."
paleontologist David Jablonsky[2]
An alternate definition often used by biologists is any species, not just plants, that can quickly adapt to any environment.[2] Some traits of weedy species are the ability to reproduce quickly, disperse widely, live in a variety of habitats, establish a population in strange places, succeed in disturbed ecosystems and resist eradication once established. Such species often do well in human-dominated environments as other species are not able to adapt. Common examples include the common pigeon, brown rat and the raccoon. Other weedy species have been able to expand their range without actually living in human environments, as human activity has damaged the ecosystems of other species. These include the coyote, the white-tailed deer and the brown headed cowbird.[2]
In response to the idea that humans may face extinction due to environmental degradation, paleontologist David Jablonsky counters by arguing that humans are a weed species. Like other weedy species, humans are widely dispersed in a wide variety of environments, and are highly unlikely to go extinct no matter how much damage the environment faces.[2]
Role in mass extinctions

A mass extinction is generally caused by some abrupt disruption to the entire planet's environment. This results in major changes in habitat worldwide, and most endemic species, specially adapted to a single habitat, cannot survive in the new habitats. Thus only weedy species survive, and they dominate the planet in the immediate aftermath. Cockroaches, for example, have survived several mass extinctions. The current Holocene extinction event, then, could lead to a planet inhabited entirely by what are known today as weeds. The fossil record indicates that after mass extinctions, a weed-dominated planet persists for five to ten million years before life re-diversifies.[2]
Plants often considered to be weeds



White clover is considered by some to be a weed in lawns, but in many other situations is a desirable source of fodder, honey and soil nitrogen.[19][20]
A short list of some plants that often are considered to be weeds follows:
Bermuda grass - perennial, spreading by runners, rhizomes and seeds.
Bindweed
Broadleaf plantain – perennial, spreads by seeds that persist in the soil for many years
Burdock – biennial
Common lambsquarters - annual
Creeping Charlie – perennial, fast-spreading plants with long creeping stems
Dandelion – perennial, wind-spread, fast-growing, and drought-tolerant
Goldenrod – perennial
Japanese Knotweed
Kudzu – perennial
Leafy spurge – perennial, with underground stems
Milk thistle – annual or biennial
Poison ivy – perennial
Ragweed – annual
Sorrel – annual
St John's wort - perennial
Sumac – woody perennial
Tree of heaven - woody perennial
Wild carrot – biennial
Wood sorrel – perennial
Yellow nutsedge - perennial
See also

Plants portal
Crop weeds
Herbicide
Introduced species
List of beneficial weeds
R-selection
Vavilovian mimicry
Volunteer (botany)
Weed control
Weed of cultivation
References

^ Janick, Jules (1979). Horticultural Science (3rd ed.). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. p. 308. ISBN 0-7167-1031-5.
^ a b c d e f David Quammen (October 1998), "Planet of Weeds", Harper's Magazine, retrieved November 15, 2012
^ Brown, Lesley (1993). The New shorter Oxford English dictionary on historical principles. Oxford [Eng.]: Clarendon. ISBN 0-19-861271-0.
^ Bell, Graham (2005). The Permaculture Garden. Chelsea Green Publishing. pp. 63-64. ISBN 9781856230278.
^ Saupe, Stephen G.. "Plant Foraging: Two Case Studies". Retrieved February 15, 2009.
^ Willis, Rick J. (2007). The History of Allelopathy. p. 8. ISBN 1-4020-4092-X. Retrieved 2009-08-17.
^ "Callaway.qxd" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-03-20.[dead link]
^ Coupe, Sheena, ed. (1989). Frontier country: Australia's outback heritage. Vol. 1. Willougby: Weldon Russell. p. 298.
^ Genesis 3:17-19 New International Version
^ Shakespeare, William. Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view. Infoplease. Retrieved February 15, 2009.
^ Annecke, D. R., Moran, V. C. (1982). Insects and mites of cultivated plants in South Africa. London: Butterworths. ISBN 0-409-08398-4.
^ Watt, John Mitchell; Breyer-Brandwijk, Maria Gerdina: The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa 2nd ed Pub. E & S Livingstone 1962
^ Roberts, John; Jackson, Nick; Smith, Mark. Tree Roots in the Built Environment. 2006. ISBN: 978-0117536203
^ Weeds Australia Black Willow
^ Baker, H.G. The Evolution of Weeds. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Vol. 5: 1-24 November 1974 DOI: 10.1146/annurev.es.05.110174.000245
^ Baker H. G. "Characteristics and modes of origin of weeds". In The Genetics of Colonizing Species. H. G. Baker, G. L. Stebbins. eds. New York, Academic Press, 1965, pp. 147-172
^ Preston, Pearman & Dines. (2002). New Atlas of the British Flora. Oxford University Press.
^ Christopher Lloyd, The Well-Tempered Garden, 1973
^ Voisin, Andre. Grass Productivity. Publisher: Island Press 1988. ISBN: 978-0933280649
^ Woodfield, Derek R. White clover, New Zealand's competitive edge. Symposium NZ Agronomy Society and Grassland Association at Lincoln University, New Zealand, November, 1995
External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Weeds (plants)
IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group
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Crack cocaine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


This article needs more medical references for verification or relies too heavily on primary sources. Please review the contents of the article and add the appropriate references if you can. Unsourced or poorly sourced material may be removed. (November 2012)



Crack cocaine ‘rocks’.
Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, work,[1] hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is said to be the most addictive form of cocaine,[2] although this has been contested. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers.[3][4] Crack appeared primarily in impoverished inner-city neighborhoods in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami in late 1984 and 1985.[5]
Contents [hide]
1 Appearance and characteristics
2 Chemistry
2.1 Psychological effects
2.2 Physiological effects
2.3 Addiction
3 Health issues
3.1 Crack lung
3.2 Effects in pregnancy and nursing
4 Legal status
4.1 Canada
4.2 United States
4.3 Europe
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Appearance and characteristics

In purer forms, crack rocks appear as off-white nuggets with jagged edges,[3] with a slightly higher density than candle wax. Purer forms of crack resemble a hard brittle plastic, in crystalline form[3] (snaps when broken). A crack rock acts as a local anesthetic (see: cocaine), numbing the tongue or mouth only where directly placed. When smoked, crack can leave the tongue numb where the smoke enters the mouth.[citation needed] Purer forms of crack will sink in water or melt at the edges when near a flame (crack vaporizes at 90 °C, 194 °F).[2]
Crack cocaine as sold on the streets may be adulterated or "cut" with other substances mimicking the appearance of crack cocaine to increase bulk. Use of toxic adulterants such as levamisole[6] has been documented.[4]
Chemistry



Possible reagents and equipment needed to convert cocaine into crack

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (August 2009)


Crack being made in a spoon
Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3, common baking soda) is a base used in preparation of crack, although other weak bases may substitute for it. The net reaction when using sodium bicarbonate is
Coc-H+Cl− + NaHCO3 → Coc + H2O + CO2 + NaCl
With Ammonium bicarbonate:
Coc-H+Cl− + NH4HCO3 → Coc + NH4Cl + CO2 + H2O
With Ammonium carbonate:
2(Coc-H+Cl−) + (NH4)2CO3 → 2 Coc + 2 NH4Cl + CO2 + H2O
Crack cocaine is frequently purchased already in rock form,[3] although it is not uncommon for some users to "wash up" or "cook" powder cocaine into crack themselves. This process is frequently done with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), water, and a spoon. Once mixed and heated, the bicarbonate breaks down into carbon dioxide and sodium carbonate, which then reacts with the hydrochloride of the powder cocaine, leaving cocaine as an oily free base. Once separated from the hydrochloride, the cocaine alkaloid floats to the top of the now leftover liquid. It is at this point that the oil is picked up rapidly, usually with a pin or long thin object. This pulls the oil up and spins it, allowing air to set and dry the oil, and allows the user and/or maker to roll the oil into the rock-like shape.
Crack vaporizes near temperature 90 °C (194 °F),[2] much lower than the cocaine hydrochloride melting point of 190 °C (374 °F).[2] Whereas cocaine hydrochloride cannot be smoked (burns with no effect),[2] crack cocaine when smoked allows for quick absorption into the blood stream, and reaches the brain in 8 seconds.[2] Users obtain an intense high much more quickly in this way than with the normal method of insufflating[citation needed] ("sniffing" or "snorting") powder cocaine. Crack cocaine can also be injected intravenously with the same effect as powder cocaine. However, whereas powder cocaine dissolves in water, crack must be dissolved in an acidic solution such as lemon juice or white vinegar, a process that effectively reverses the original conversion of powder cocaine to crack.
Psychological effects
Crack cocaine is a substance that affects the brain chemistry of the user: causing euphoria,[7] supreme confidence,[8] loss of appetite,[7] insomnia,[7] alertness,[7] increased energy,[7] a craving for more cocaine,[8] and potential paranoia (ending after use).[7][9] Its initial effect is to release a large amount of dopamine,[3] a brain chemical inducing feelings of euphoria[citation needed]. The high usually lasts from 5–10 minutes,[3][7] after which time dopamine levels in the brain plummet, leaving the user feeling depressed and low.[3] When cocaine is dissolved and injected, the absorption into the bloodstream is at least as rapid as the absorption of the drug which occurs when crack cocaine is smoked,[7] and similar euphoria may be experienced.
A typical response among users is to have another hit of the drug; however, the levels of dopamine in the brain take a long time to replenish themselves, and each hit taken in rapid succession leads to progressively less intense highs.[3] However, a person might binge for 3 or more days without sleep, while partying with hits from the pipe.[9]
Use of cocaine in a binge, during which the drug is taken repeatedly and at increasingly high doses, leads to a state of increasing irritability, restlessness, and paranoia.[7] This may result in a full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which the individual loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations.[7]
Stimulant drug abuse (particularly amphetamine and cocaine) can lead to delusional parasitosis (aka Ekbom's Syndrome: a mistaken belief they are infested with parasites).[10] For example, excessive cocaine use can lead to formication, nicknamed "cocaine bugs" or "coke bugs," where the affected people believe they have, or feel, parasites crawling under their skin.[10] (Similar delusions may also be associated with high fever or in connection with alcohol withdrawal, sometimes accompanied by visual hallucinations of insects.)[10]
People experiencing these hallucinations might scratch themselves to the extent of serious skin damage and bleeding, especially when they are delirious.[9][10]
Physiological effects


Main physiological effects of Crack cocaine.
The short-term physiological effects of cocaine include[7] constricted blood vessels, dilated pupils, and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. Large amounts (several hundred milligrams or more) intensify the user's high, but may also lead to bizarre, erratic, and violent behavior.[7] Large amounts can induce tremors, vertigo, muscle twitches, paranoia, or, with repeated doses, a toxic reaction closely resembling amphetamine poisoning.[7] Some users of cocaine report feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. In rare instances, sudden death can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter.[7] Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest.
An appreciable tolerance to cocaine’s high may develop, with many addicts reporting that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first experience.[7] Some users will frequently increase their doses to intensify and prolong the euphoric effects. While tolerance to the high can occur, users might also become more sensitive (drug sensitization) to cocaine's local anesthetic (pain killing) and convulsant (seizure inducing) effects, without increasing the dose taken; this increased sensitivity may explain some deaths occurring after apparent low doses of cocaine.[7]
Addiction
Main article: Substance dependence
Crack cocaine is popularly thought to be the most addictive form of cocaine.[2] However, this claim has been contested: Morgan and Zimmer wrote that available data indicated that "...smoking cocaine by itself does not increase markedly the likelihood of dependence.... The claim that cocaine is much more addictive when smoked must be reexamined."[11] They argued that cocaine users who are already prone to abuse are most likely to "move toward a more efficient mode of ingestion" (that is, smoking).
The intense desire to recapture the initial high is what is so addictive for many users.[3] On the other hand, Reinarman et al. wrote that the nature of crack addiction depends on the social context in which it is used and the psychological characteristics of users, pointing out that many heavy crack users can go for days or weeks without using the drugs.[12]
Health issues



Smoking crack cocaine.
Because crack is an illicit drug, users may consume impure or fake ("bunk") drug,[4] which may pose additional health risks. However, use of crack alone is less dangerous than speedballing or "snowballing" (mixing cocaine with heroin), which can lead to more fatalities than either drug used on its own[citation needed].
Like other forms of cocaine, smoking crack can increase heart rate[13] and blood pressure, leading to long-term cardiovascular problems. Some research suggests that smoking crack or freebase cocaine has additional health risks compared to other methods of taking cocaine. Many of these issues relate specifically to the release of methylecgonidine and its effect on the heart,[13] lungs,
 
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Abortion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Induced abortion
Classification and external resources

A woman receiving pennyroyal, a common medieval abortifacient. From Herbarium by Pseudo-Apuleius. 13th-century manuscript.
ICD-10 O04
ICD-9 779.6
DiseasesDB 4153
MedlinePlus 002912
eMedicine article/252560
Abortion is the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability.[note 1] An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced. The term abortion most commonly refers to the induced abortion of a human pregnancy.
Abortion, when induced in the developed world in accordance with local law, is among the safest procedures in medicine.[1] However, unsafe abortions result in approximately 70,000 maternal deaths and 5 million hospital admissions per year globally.[2] An estimated 44 million abortions are performed globally each year, with slightly under half of those performed unsafely.[3] The incidence of abortion has stabilized in recent years,[3] having previously spent decades declining as access to family planning education and contraceptive services increased.[4] Forty percent of the world's women have access to induced abortions (within gestational limits).[5]
Induced abortion has a long history and has been facilitated by various methods including herbal abortifacients, the use of sharpened tools, physical trauma, and other traditional methods. Contemporary medicine utilizes medications and surgical procedures to induce abortion. The legality, prevalence, cultural and religious status of abortion vary substantially around the world. Its legality can depend on specific conditions such as incest, rape, severe fetal defects or the mother's health being at risk. In many parts of the world there is prominent and divisive public controversy over the ethical and legal issues of abortion.
Contents [hide]
1 Types
1.1 Induced
1.2 Spontaneous
2 Methods
2.1 Medical
2.2 Surgical
2.3 Other methods
3 Safety
3.1 Unsafe abortion
4 Incidence
4.1 By gestational age and method
4.2 Personal and social factors
5 History
6 Society and culture
6.1 Abortion debate
6.2 Modern abortion law
6.3 Sex-selective abortion
6.4 Anti-abortion violence
6.5 Art, literature and film
7 In other animals
8 References
8.1 Citations
8.2 Notes
9 External links
Types

Induced
Approximately 205 million pregnancies occur each year worldwide. Over a third are unintended and about a fifth end in induced abortion.[3][6] Most abortions result from unintended pregnancies.[7][8] A pregnancy can be intentionally aborted in several ways. The manner selected often depends upon the gestational age of the embryo or fetus, which increases in size as the pregnancy progresses.[9][10] Specific procedures may also be selected due to legality, regional availability, and doctor or patient preference.
Reasons for procuring induced abortions are typically characterized as either therapeutic or elective. An abortion is medically referred to as a therapeutic abortion when it is performed to save the life of the pregnant woman; prevent harm to the woman's physical or mental health; terminate a pregnancy where indications are that the child will have a significantly increased chance of premature morbidity or mortality or be otherwise disabled; or to selectively reduce the number of fetuses to lessen health risks associated with multiple pregnancy.[11][12] An abortion is referred to as an elective or voluntary abortion when it is performed at the request of the woman for non-medical reasons.[12] Confusion sometimes arises over the term "elective" because "elective surgery" generally refers to all scheduled surgery, whether medically necessary or not.[13]
Spontaneous
Main article: Miscarriage
Spontaneous abortion, also known as miscarriage, is the unintentional expulsion of an embryo or fetus before the 24th week of gestation.[14] A pregnancy that ends before 37 weeks of gestation resulting in a live-born infant is known as a "premature birth" or a "preterm birth".[15] When a fetus dies in utero after viability, or during delivery, it is usually termed "stillborn".[16] Premature births and stillbirths are generally not considered to be miscarriages although usage of these terms can sometimes overlap.[17]
Only 30 to 50% of conceptions progress past the first trimester.[18] The vast majority of those that do not progress are lost before the woman is aware of the conception,[12] and many pregnancies are lost before medical practitioners can detect an embryo.[19] Between 15% and 30% of known pregnancies end in clinically apparent miscarriage, depending upon the age and health of the pregnant woman.[20]
The most common cause of spontaneous abortion during the first trimester is chromosomal abnormalities of the embryo or fetus,[12][21] accounting for at least 50% of sampled early pregnancy losses.[22] Other causes include vascular disease (such as lupus), diabetes, other hormonal problems, infection, and abnormalities of the uterus.[21] Advancing maternal age and a patient history of previous spontaneous abortions are the two leading factors associated with a greater risk of spontaneous abortion.[22] A spontaneous abortion can also be caused by accidental trauma; intentional trauma or stress to cause miscarriage is considered induced abortion or feticide.[23]
Methods



Gestational age may determine which abortion methods are practiced.
Medical
Main article: Medical abortion
Medical abortions are those induced by abortifacient pharmaceuticals. Medical abortion became an alternative method of abortion with the availability of prostaglandin analogs in the early 1970s and the antiprogestogen mifepristone in the 1980s.[24][25][26]
The most common early first-trimester medical abortion regimens use mifepristone in combination with a prostaglandin analog (misoprostol or gemeprost) up to 9 weeks gestational age, methotrexate in combination with a prostaglandin analog up to 7 weeks gestation, or a prostaglandin analog alone.[24] Mifepristone–misoprostol combination regimens work faster and are more effective at later gestational ages than methotrexate–misoprostol combination regimens, and combination regimens are more effective than misoprostol alone.[25] This regime is effective in the second trimester.[27]
In very early abortions, up to 7 weeks gestation, medical abortion using a mifepristone–misoprostol combination regimen is considered to be more effective than surgical abortion (vacuum aspiration), especially when clinical practice does not include detailed inspection of aspirated tissue.[28] Early medical abortion regimens using mifepristone, followed 24–48 hours later by buccal or vaginal misoprostol are 98% effective up to 9 weeks gestational age.[29] If medical abortion fails, surgical abortion must be used to complete the procedure.[30]
Early medical abortions account for the majority of abortions before 9 weeks gestation in Britain,[31][32] France,[33] Switzerland,[34] and the Nordic countries.[35] In the United States, the percentage of early medical abortions is far lower.[36][37]
Medical abortion regimens using mifepristone in combination with a prostaglandin analog are the most common methods used for second-trimester abortions in Canada, most of Europe, China and India,[26] in contrast to the United States where 96% of second-trimester abortions are performed surgically by dilation and evacuation.[38]
Surgical


A vacuum aspiration abortion at eight weeks gestational age (six weeks after fertilization).
1: Amniotic sac
2: Embryo
3: Uterine lining
4: Speculum
5: Vacurette
6: Attached to a suction pump
Up to 15 weeks' gestation, suction-aspiration or vacuum aspiration are the most common surgical methods of induced abortion.[39] Manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) consists of removing the fetus or embryo, placenta, and membranes by suction using a manual syringe, while electric vacuum aspiration (EVA) uses an electric pump. These techniques differ in the mechanism used to apply suction, in how early in pregnancy they can be used, and in whether cervical dilation is necessary.
MVA, also known as "mini-suction" and "menstrual extraction", can be used in very early pregnancy, and does not require cervical dilation. Dilation and curettage (D&C), the second most common method of surgical abortion, is a standard gynecological procedure performed for a variety of reasons, including examination of the uterine lining for possible malignancy, investigation of abnormal bleeding, and abortion. Curettage refers to cleaning the walls of the uterus with a curette. The World Health Organization recommends this procedure, also called sharp curettage, only when MVA is unavailable.[40]
From the 15th week of gestation until approximately the 26th, other techniques must be used. Dilation and evacuation (D&E) consists of opening the cervix of the uterus and emptying it using surgical instruments and suction. Premature labor and delivery can be induced with prostaglandin; this can be coupled with injecting the amniotic fluid with hypertonic solutions containing saline or urea. After the 16th week of gestation, abortions can also be induced by intact dilation and extraction (IDX) (also called intrauterine cranial decompression), which requires surgical decompression of the fetus's head before evacuation. IDX is sometimes called "partial-birth abortion," which has been federally banned in the United States.
In the third trimester of pregnancy, abortion may be performed by IDX as described above, induction of labor, or by hysterotomy. Hysterotomy abortion is a procedure similar to a caesarean section and is performed under general anesthesia. It requires a smaller incision than a caesarean section and is used during later stages of pregnancy.[41]
 
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Other methods
Historically, a number of herbs reputed to possess abortifacient properties have been used in folk medicine: tansy, pennyroyal, black cohosh, and the now-extinct silphium (see history of abortion).[42] The use of herbs in such a manner can cause serious—even lethal—side effects, such as multiple organ failure, and is not recommended by physicians.[43]
Abortion is sometimes attempted by causing trauma to the abdomen. The degree of force, if severe, can cause serious internal injuries without necessarily succeeding in inducing miscarriage.[44] In Southeast Asia, there is an ancient tradition of attempting abortion through forceful abdominal massage.[45] One of the bas reliefs decorating the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia depicts a demon performing such an abortion upon a woman who has been sent to the underworld.[45]
Reported methods of unsafe, self-induced abortion include misuse of misoprostol, and insertion of non-surgical implements such as knitting needles and clothes hangers into the uterus. These methods are rarely seen in developed countries where surgical abortion is legal and available.[46]
Safety

The health risks of abortion depend on whether the procedure is performed safely or unsafely. The World Health Organization defines unsafe abortions as those performed by unskilled individuals, with hazardous equipment, or in unsanitary facilities.[47] Legal abortions performed in the developed world are among the safest procedures in medicine.[1][48] In the US, the risk of maternal death from abortion is 0.6 per 100,000 procedures, making abortion about 14 times safer than childbirth (8.8 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births).[49][50] The risk of abortion-related mortality increases with gestational age, but remains lower than that of childbirth through at least 21 weeks' gestation.[51][52][53]
Vacuum aspiration in the first trimester is the safest method of surgical abortion, and can be performed in a primary care office, abortion clinic, or hospital. Complications are rare and can include uterine perforation, pelvic infection, and retained products of conception requiring a second procedure to evacuate.[54] Preventive antibiotics (such as doxycycline or metronidazole) are typically given before elective abortion,[55] as they are believed to substantially reduce the risk of postoperative uterine infection.[37][56] Complications after second-trimester abortion are similar to those after first-trimester abortion, and depend somewhat on the method chosen.
There is little difference in terms of safety and efficacy between medical abortion using a combined regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol and surgical abortion (vacuum aspiration) in early first trimester abortions up to 9 weeks gestation.[28] Medical abortion using the prostaglandin analog misoprostol alone is less effective and more painful than medical abortion using a combined regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol or surgical abortion.[57][58]
Some purported risks of abortion are promoted primarily by anti-abortion groups, but lack scientific support.[59] For example, the question of a link between induced abortion and breast cancer has been investigated extensively. Major medical and scientific bodies (including the World Health Organization, the US National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) have concluded that abortion does not cause breast cancer,[60] although such a link continues to be promoted by anti-abortion groups.[59]
Similarly, current scientific evidence indicates that induced abortion does not cause mental-health problems.[61][62] The American Psychological Association has concluded that a single abortion is not a threat to women's mental health, and that women are no more likely to have mental-health problems after a first-trimester abortion than after carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term.[63][64] Abortions performed after the first trimester because of fetal abnormalities are not thought to cause mental-health problems.[65] Some proposed negative psychological effects of abortion have been referred to by anti-abortion advocates as a separate condition called "post-abortion syndrome", which is not recognized by any medical or psychological organization.[66]
Unsafe abortion


Soviet poster circa 1925, warning against midwives performing abortions. Title translation: "Abortions performed by either trained or self-taught midwives not only maim the woman, they also often lead to death."
Main article: Unsafe abortion
Women seeking to terminate their pregnancies sometimes resort to unsafe methods, particularly when access to legal abortion is restricted. They may attempt to self-abort or rely on another person who does not have proper medical training or access to proper facilities. This has a tendency to lead to severe complications, such as incomplete abortion, sepsis, hemorrhage, and damage to internal organs.[67]
Unsafe abortions are a major cause of injury and death among women worldwide. Although data are imprecise, it is estimated that approximately 20 million unsafe abortions are performed annually, with 97% taking place in developing countries.[1] Unsafe abortion is believed to result in approximately 68,000 deaths and millions of injuries annually.[1][68] This make up 13% of all maternal deaths.[69] Groups such as the World Health Organization have advocated a public-health approach to addressing unsafe abortion, emphasizing the legalization of abortion, the training of medical personnel, and ensuring access to reproductive-health services.[70]
The legality of abortion is one of the main determinants of its safety. Countries with restrictive abortion laws have significantly higher rates of unsafe abortion (and similar overall abortion rates) compared to those where abortion is legal and available.[2][3][70][71][72][73] For example, the 1996 legalization of abortion in South Africa had an immediate positive impact on the frequency of abortion-related complications,[74] with abortion-related deaths dropping by more than 90%.[75] In addition, a lack of access to effective contraception contributes to unsafe abortion. It has been estimated that the incidence of unsafe abortion could be reduced by up to 75% (from 20 million to 5 million annually) if modern family planning and maternal health services were readily available globally.[76]
Forty percent of the world's women are able to access therapeutic and elective abortions within gestational limits,[5] while an additional 35 percent have access to legal abortion if they meet certain physical, mental, or socioeconomic criteria.[77] While maternal mortality seldom results from safe abortions, unsafe abortions result in 70,000 deaths and 5 million disabilities per year.[2] Complications of unsafe abortion account for approximately an eighth of maternal mortalities worldwide,[78] though this varies by region.[79] Secondary infertility caused by an unsafe abortion affects an estimated 24 million women.[72] The rate of unsafe abortions has increased from 44% to 49% between 1995 and 2008.[3] Health education, access to family planning, and improvements in health care during and after abortion have been proposed to address this phenomenon.[80]
Incidence

There are two commonly used methods of measuring the incidence of abortion:
Abortion rate – number of abortions per 1000 women between 15 and 44 years of age
Abortion ratio – number of abortions out of 100 known pregnancies (excluding miscarriages and stillbirths)
The number of abortions performed worldwide has remained stable in recent years, with 41.6 million having been performed in 2003 and 43.8 million having been performed in 2008.[3] The abortion rate worldwide was 28 per 1000 women, though it was 24 per 1000 women for developed countries and 29 per 1000 women for developing countries.[3] The same study found an abortion ratio of 32% worldwide, with 44% of known pregnancies in developed countries and 31% in developing countries.
On average, the incidence of abortion is similar in countries with restrictive abortion laws and those with more liberal access to abortion. However, restrictive abortion laws are associated with increases in the percentage of abortions which are performed unsafely.[5][81][82] The unsafe abortion rate in developing countries is partly attributable to lack of access to modern contraceptives; according to the Guttmacher Institute, providing access to contraceptives would result in about 14.5 million fewer unsafe abortions and 38,000 fewer deaths from unsafe abortion annually worldwide.[83]
The incidence of induced abortion varies extensively worldwide. The ratio of induced abortion ranges from ten to thirty percent; figures in the developing world vary widely and are often incomplete.[84]
 
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By gestational age and method

Histogram of abortions by gestational age in England and Wales during 2004. Average is 9.5 weeks. (Data source: United Kingdom Department of Health) (left)

Abortion in the United States by gestational age, 2004. (Data source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) (right)
Abortion rates also vary depending on the stage of pregnancy and the method practiced. In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 26% of abortions in the United States were known to have been obtained at less than 6 weeks' gestation, 18% at 7 weeks, 15% at 8 weeks, 4.1% at 16 through 20 weeks and 1.4% at more than 21 weeks. 90.9% of these were classified as having been done by "curettage" (suction-aspiration, dilation and curettage, dilation and evacuation), 7.7% by "medical" means (mifepristone), 0.4% by "intrauterine instillation" (saline or prostaglandin), and 1.0% by "other" (including hysterotomy and hysterectomy).[85] According to the CDC, due to data collection difficulties the data must be viewed as tentative and some fetal deaths reported beyond 20 weeks may be natural deaths erroneously classified as abortions if the removal of the fetus is accomplished by the same procedure as an induced abortion.[86]
The Guttmacher Institute estimated there were 2,200 intact dilation and extraction procedures in the US during 2000; this accounts for 0.17% of the total number of abortions performed that year.[87] Similarly, in England and Wales in 2006, 89% of terminations occurred at or under 12 weeks, 9% between 13 to 19 weeks, and 1.5% at or over 20 weeks. 64% of those reported were by vacuum aspiration, 6% by D&E, and 30% were medical.[88] Later abortions are more common in China, India, and other developing countries than in developed countries.[89]
Personal and social factors


A bar chart depicting selected data from a 1998 AGI meta-study on the reasons women stated for having an abortion.
The reasons why women have abortions are diverse and vary dramatically across the world. Some of the most common reasons are to postpone childbearing to a more suitable time or to focus energies and resources on existing children. Others include being unable to afford a child either in terms of the direct costs of raising a child or the loss of income while she is caring for the child, lack of support from the father, inability to afford additional children, desire to provide schooling for existing children, disruption of one's own education, relationship problems with their partner, a perception of being too young to have a child, unemployment, and not being willing to raise a child conceived as a result of rape or incest, among others.[90][91] An additional factor is risk to maternal or fetal health, which was cited as the primary reason for abortion in over a third of cases in some countries and as a significant factor in only a single-digit percentage of abortions in other countries.[86][90]
An American study in 2002 concluded that about half of women having abortions were using a form of contraception at the time of becoming pregnant. Inconsistent use was reported by half of those using condoms and three-quarters of those using the birth-control pill; 42% of those using condoms reported failure through slipping or breakage.[92] The Guttmacher Institute estimated that "most abortions in the United States are obtained by minority women" because minority women "have much higher rates of unintended pregnancy."[93]
Some abortions are undergone as the result of societal pressures. These might include the preference for children of a specific sex, disapproval of single or early motherhood, stigmatization of people with disabilities, insufficient economic support for families, lack of access to or rejection of contraceptive methods, or efforts toward population control (such as China's one-child policy). These factors can sometimes result in compulsory abortion or sex-selective abortion.
History



"French Periodical Pills." An example of a clandestine advertisement published in an 1845 edition of the Boston Daily Times.
Main article: History of abortion
Induced abortion has long history, and can be traced back to civilizations as varied as China under Shennong (c. 2700 BCE), Ancient Egypt with its Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BCE), and the Roman Empire in the time of Juvenal (c. 200 CE).[94] There is evidence to suggest that pregnancies were terminated through a number of methods, including the administration of abortifacient herbs, the use of sharpened implements, the application of abdominal pressure, and other techniques.
Some medical scholars and abortion opponents have suggested that the Hippocratic Oath forbade Ancient Greek physicians from performing abortions;[94] other scholars disagree with this interpretation,[94] and note the medical texts of Hippocratic Corpus contain descriptions of abortive techniques.[95] Aristotle, in his treatise on government Politics (350 BCE), condemns infanticide as a means of population control. He preferred abortion in such cases, with the restriction[96] "[that it] must be practised on it before it has developed sensation and life; for the line between lawful and unlawful abortion will be marked by the fact of having sensation and being alive."[97]In Christianity, Pope Sixtus V (1585–90) is noted as the first Pope to declare that abortion is homicide regardless of the stage of pregnancy;[98] the Catholic Church had previously been divided on whether if believed that abortion was murder, and did not begin vigorously opposing abortion until the 19th century.[94] Islamic tradition has traditionally permitted abortion until a point in time when Muslims believe the soul enters the fetus,[94] considered by various theologians to be at conception, 40 days after conception, 120 days after conception, or quickening.[99] However, abortion is largely heavily restricted or forbidden in areas of high Islamic faith such as the Middle East and North Africa.[100]
In Europe and North America, abortion techniques advanced starting in the 17th century. However, conservatism by most physicians with regards to sexual matters prevented the wide expansion of safe abortion techniques.[94] Other medical practitioners in addition to some physicians advertised their services, and they were not widely regulated until the 19th century, when the practice was banned in both the United States and the United Kingdom.[94] Church groups as well as physicians were highly influential in anti-abortion movements.[94] In the US, abortion was more dangerous than childbirth until about 1930 when incremental improvements in abortion procedures relative to childbirth made abortion safer.[note 2] The Soviet Union (1919), Iceland (1935) and Sweden (1938) were among the first countries to legalize certain or all forms of abortion.[101] In 1935 Nazi Germany, a law was passed permitting abortions for those deemed "hereditarily ill," while women considered of German stock were specifically prohibited from having abortions.[102] Beginning in the second half of the twentieth century, abortion was legalized in a greater number of countries.[94]
Society and culture

Abortion debate
Main article: Abortion debate
Induced abortion has long been the source of considerable debate, controversy, and activism. An individual's position concerning the complex ethical, moral, philosophical, biological, and legal issues which surround abortion is often related to his or her value system. Opinions of abortion may be described as being a combination of beliefs about abortion's morality the proper extent of governmental authority in public policy; and on the rights and responsibilities of the woman seeking to have an abortion. Religious ethics also has an influence on both personal opinion and the greater debate over abortion.
In both public and private debate, arguments presented in favor of or against abortion access focus on either the moral permissibility of an induced abortion, or justification of laws permitting or restricting abortion. Abortion debates, especially pertaining to abortion laws, are often spearheaded by groups advocating one of these two positions. Anti-abortion groups who favor greater legal restrictions on abortion, including complete prohibition, most often describe themselves as "pro-life" while abortion rights groups who are against such legal restrictions describe themselves as "pro-choice". Generally, the former position argues that a human fetus is a human being with a right to live, making abortion morally the same as murder. The latter position argues that a woman has certain reproductive rights, especially the choice whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term.
Modern abortion law


International status of abortion law
UN 2011 report on abortion law.[103]
Legal on request
Legal for rape, maternal life, health, mental health, socioeconomic factors, and/or fetal defects
Illegal with exception for rape, maternal life, health, mental health, and/or fetal defects
Illegal with exception for rape, maternal life, health, and/or mental health
Illegal with exception for maternal life, health, and/or mental health
Illegal with no exceptions
Varies
No information[104][dated info]
Main article: Abortion law
See also: History of abortion law debate
Current laws pertaining to abortion are diverse. Religious, moral, and cultural sensibilities continue to influence abortion laws throughout the world. The right to life, the right to liberty, the right to security of person, and the right to reproductive health are major issues of human rights that are sometimes used as justification for the existence or absence of laws controlling abortion.
In jurisdictions where abortion is legal, certain requirements must often be met before a woman may obtain a safe, legal abortion (an abortion performed without
 
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Sex-selective abortion
Main article: Sex-selective abortion
Sonography and amniocentesis allow parents to determine sex before childbirth. The development of this technology has led to sex-selective abortion, or the termination of a fetus based on sex. The selective termination of a female fetus is most common.
Sex-selective abortion is partially responsible for the noticeable disparities between the birth rates of male and female children in some countries. The preference for male children is reported in many areas of Asia, and abortion used to limit female births has been reported in Taiwan, South Korea, India, and China.[114] This deviation from the standard birth rates of males and females occurs despite the fact that the country in question may have officially banned sex-selective abortion or even sex-screening.[115][116][117][118] In China, a historical preference for a male child has been exacerbated by the one-child policy, which was enacted in 1979.[119]
Many countries have taken legislative steps to reduce the incidence of sex-selective abortion. At the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 over 180 states agreed to eliminate "all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference",[120] which was also condemned by a PACE resolution in 2011.[121] The World Health Organization and UNICEF, along with other United Nations agencies, have found that measures to reduce access to abortion are much less effective at reducing sex-selective abortions than measures to reduce gender inequality.[120]
Anti-abortion violence
Main article: Anti-abortion violence
In a number of cases, abortion providers and these facilities have been subjected to various forms of violence, including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, stalking, assault, arson, and bombing. Anti-abortion violence is classified by both governmental and scholarly sources as terrorism.[122][123] Only a small fraction of those opposed to abortion commit violence, often rationalizing their actions as justifiable homicide or defense of others, committed in order to protect the lives of fetuses. Invasion of privacy and stalking of doctors, clinic workers, and patients, even by police officers, is similarly justified.[124]
In the United States, four physicians who performed abortions have been murdered: David Gunn (1993), John Britton (1994), Barnett Slepian (1998), and George Tiller (2009). Also murdered, in the U.S. and Australia, have been other personnel at abortion clinics, including receptionists and security guards such as James Barrett, Shannon Lowney, Lee Ann Nichols, and Robert Sanderson. Woundings (e.g., Garson Romalis) and attempted murders have also taken place in the United States and Canada, Hundreds of bombings, arsons, acid attacks, invasions, and incidents of vandalism against abortion providers have also occurred.[125][126] Notable perpetrators of anti-abortion violence include Eric Robert Rudolph, Scott Roeder, Shelley Shannon, and Paul Jennings Hill, the first person to be executed in the United States for murdering an abortion provider.[127]
Legal protection of access to abortion has been brought in to some countries where abortion is legal. These laws typically seek to protect abortion clinics from obstruction, vandalism, picketing, and other actions, or to protect patients and employees of such facilities from threats and harassment.
Art, literature and film


Bas-relief at Angkor Wat, Cambodia, c. 1150, depicting a demon inducing an abortion by pounding the abdomen of a pregnant woman with a pestle.[45][128]
Art serves to humanize the abortion issue and illustrates the myriad of decisions and consequences it has. One of the earliest known representations of abortion is in a bas relief at Angkor Wat (c. 1150). Anti-abortion activist Børre Knudsen was linked to a 1994 art theft as part of an anti-abortion drive in Norway surrounding the 1994 Winter Olympics.[129] A Swiss gallery removed a piece from a Chinese art collection in 2005, that had the head of a fetus attached to the body of a bird.[130] In 2008, a Yale student proposed using aborted excretions and the induced abortion itself as a performance art project.[131]
The Cider House Rules (novel 1985, film 1999) follows the story of Dr. Larch an orphanage director who is a reluctant abortionist after seeing the consequences of back-alley abortions, and his orphan medical assistant Homer who is against abortion.[132] Feminist novels such as Braided Lives (1997) by Marge Piercy emphasize the struggles women had in dealing with unsafe abortion in various circumstances prior to legalization.[133] Physician Susan Wicklund wrote This Common Secret (2007) about how a personal traumatic abortion experience hardened her resolve to provide compassionate care to women who decide to have an abortion. As Wicklund crisscrosses the West to provide abortion services to remote clinics, she tells the stories of women she's treated and the sacrifices she and her loved ones made.[134] In 2009, Irene Vilar revealed her past abuse and addiction to abortion in Impossible Motherhood, where she aborted 15 pregnancies in 17 years. According to Vilar it was the result of a dark psychological cycle of power, rebellion and societal expectations.[135] In Annie Finch's mythic epic poem and opera libretto Among the Goddesses (2010), the heroine's abortion is contextualized spiritually by the goddesses Demeter, Kali, and Inanna.[136]
Various options and realities of abortion have been dramatized in film. In Riding in Cars with Boys (2001) an underage woman carries her pregnancy to term as abortion is not an affordable option, moves in with the father and finds herself involved with drugs, has no opportunities, and questioning if she loves her child. In Juno (2007) a 16-year-old initially goes to have an abortion but decides to bear the child and allow a wealthy couple to adopt it. The films Dirty Dancing (1987) and If These Walls Could Talk (1996) explore the availability, affordability and dangers of illegal abortions. The emotional impact of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy alone is the focus of Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her (2000) and Circle of Friends (1995). In The Godfather Part II (1974) Kay informed Michael Corleone that she had obtained an abortion without his knowledge nor consent.[137] On the abortion debate, an irresponsible drug addict is used as a pawn in a power struggle between abortion rights and anti-abortion groups in Citizen Ruth (1996).[138] The Law & Order television episode "Dignity" deals with the trial of a man who killed a late-term abortion doctor; the storyline was inspired by the assassination of abortion provider George Tiller.[139]
In other animals

Further information: Miscarriage
Spontaneous abortion occurs in various animals. For example, in sheep, it may be caused by crowding through doors, or being chased by dogs.[140] In cows, abortion may be caused by contagious disease, such as Brucellosis or Campylobacter, but can often be controlled by vaccination.[141] In horses, a fetus may be aborted or resorbed if it has Lethal white syndrome (congenital intestinal aganglionosis). Foal embryos that are homozygous for the dominant white gene (WW) are often resorbed before birth.[142]
Viral infection can cause abortion in dogs.[143] Cats can experience spontaneous abortion for many reasons, including hormonal imbalance. A combined abortion and spaying is performed on pregnant cats, especially in Trap-Neuter-Return programs, to prevent unwanted kittens from being born.[144][145][146]
Abortion may also be induced in animals, in the context of animal husbandry. For example, abortion may be induced in mares that have been mated improperly, or that have been purchased by owners who did not realize the mares were pregnant, or that are pregnant with twin foals.[147] Feticide can occur in horses and zebras due to male harassment of pregnant mares or forced copulation,[148][149][150] although the frequency in the wild has been questioned.[151] Male gray langur monkeys may attack females following male takeover, causing miscarriage.[152]
References
 
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Steel Member
Citations
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