Beginning of pregnancy controversy in the context of "Gestational age (obstetrics)"

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⭐ Core Definition: Beginning of pregnancy controversy

Controversy over the beginning of pregnancy occurs in different contexts, particularly as it is discussed within the debate of abortion in the United States. Because an abortion is defined as ending an established pregnancy, rather than as destroying a fertilized egg, depending on when pregnancy is considered to begin, some methods of birth control as well as some methods of infertility treatment might be classified as causing abortions.

The controversy is not primarily a scientific issue, since knowledge of human reproduction and development has become very refined; the linguistic questions remain debated for other reasons. The issue poses larger social, legal, medical, religious, philosophical, and political ramifications because some people, such as Concerned Women for America, identify the beginning of a pregnancy as the beginning of an individual human being's life. Many of these arguments are related to the anti-abortion movement. In this way of thinking, if the pregnancy has not yet begun, then stopping the process is not abortion and therefore can contain none of the moral issues associated with abortion, but if it is a pregnancy, then stopping it is a morally significant act.

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👉 Beginning of pregnancy controversy in the context of Gestational age (obstetrics)

In obstetrics, gestational age is a measure of the age of a pregnancy taken from the beginning of the woman's last menstrual period (LMP), or the corresponding age of the gestation as estimated by a more accurate method, if available. Such methods include adding 14 days to a known duration since fertilization (as is possible in in vitro fertilization), or by obstetric ultrasonography. The popularity of using this measure of pregnancy is largely due to convenience: menstruation is usually noticed, while there is generally no convenient way to discern when fertilization or implantation occurred.

Gestational age is contrasted with fertilization age, which takes the date of fertilization as the start date of gestation. There are different approaches to defining the start of a pregnancy. This definition is unusual in that it describes women as becoming "pregnant" about two weeks before they even had intercourse. The definition of pregnancy and the calculation of gestational age are also relevant in the context of the abortion debate and the philosophical debate over the beginning of human personhood.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Gestational age (obstetrics) ← Gestational age
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Beginning of human life → Roman Catholic Church → Religious → Abortion in the United States → Abortion → Birth control → Infertility treatment → Abortifacient → Concerned Women for America → Anti-abortion movement →