Deck 14: Abortion

Question 1

Historically, under common law, abortions were legal

A) At any stage of the pregnancy.
B) as long as it took place before the quickening.
C) only for immigrant and minority women.
D) if the father of the child consented.

Answer 1

as long as it took place before the quickening.

Question 2

Early anti-abortion laws were directed

A) against quacks and apothecaries offering medications to induce abortions
B) to increase births of white babies so the population of "inferior" immigrants could not exceed that of the "native stock"
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B

Answer 2

to increase births of white babies so the population of "inferior" immigrants could not exceed that of the "native stock"

Question 3

In Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruled

A) A woman has the right to privacy and this includes the right to have an abortion
B) Abortion should be regulated by state government and no person has the right to chose to "kill a child"
C) A woman could chose to have an abortion if her life was in jeopardy because of the pregnancy
D) A woman can chose to have an abortion if she can prove that that she has no other choice.

Answer 3

A woman has the right to privacy and this includes the right to have an abortion

Question 4

According to the Supreme Court, _______ is not an undue burden or substantial obstacle for a woman seeking an abortion

A) A twenty four hour waiting period
B) Woman must sign a statement affirming that she knew of the availability of the materials
C) Woman must notify spouse prior to having an abortion
D) All of these
E) Just A and B

Question 5

In relation to minors obtaining an abortion, the Supreme Court ruled that

A) A minor can petition the court, and based upon her emotional maturity may be able to obtain an abortion without parental consent
B) A minor must always have parental consent to obtain an abortion
C) A minor must have the consent of the father of the child in order to obtain an abortion
D) A minor can never legally obtain an abortion

Question 6

Research has shown that, without consent laws,

A) More than half of minors involved one or both parents in the abortion process.
B) A little less than half of minors involved their parents in the abortion process.
C) Only a trace amount of the population of minors involved their parents in the abortion process.
D) No minors ever involved their parents.

Question 7

When young women go to courts to petition obtaining an abortion without parental consent, most found it aversive and punitive because

A) the women were afraid that they would see someone they knew in the courthouse
B) the judges would ask intimate, embarrassing questions about their decision to have an abortion, their sex lives, etc.
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B

Question 8

Research has shown that in Massachusetts parental notification laws have

A) Decreased abortion rates among adolescents
B) Increased the number of adolescents seeking abortions in neighboring states
C) Have not been able to document accurate results.
D) Have increased abortion rates among adolescents who seek them from "quack" practitioners.

Question 9

When comparing risks of abortion with that of childbirth, studies indicate that

A) childbirth is seven times more likely to cause death to the mother than abortion is.
B) abortion is more likely to cause long term depression and other mental disorders than actually having the child would.
C) abortion is 7 times more likely to cause death to the mother than childbirth.
D) none of the above.

Question 10

For the most part, fairly soon after having an abortion, the most common emotion experienced by the mother is

A) Anger, shame and guilt
B) Happiness and relief
C) Depression
D) Fear

Question 11

Children born out of wedlock

A) Are less likely to be premature and low birth weight
B) Are more likely to be neglected by their mothers
C) May have a greater frequency of school failure
D) Both B and C
E) C only

Question 12

What reasons are offered for the change in laws about abortion beginning in the 1960's?

Question 13

Trace the development of thinking about abortion in United States.

Question 14

What effects have parental notification and judicial bypass had on the rate and timing of abortions?

Question 15

What evidence is there to suggest that there are either positive or negative psychological effects from having an abortion? How do these effects differ by age?

Question 16

What does social science research tell us are the effects on adolescents who carrying a pregnancy to term?

Question 17

Since antiquity, men and women have sought to limit family size

A) by giving infants up for adoption
B) by using contraception
C) by abortions
D) all of the above

Question 18

Laws against abortion passed in the late 19^th century succeeded in driving abortion underground

A) so wealthier women could not find a practitioner willing to perform the abortion
B) so poorer women who sought abortions were at the mercy of anyone who would provide the service
C) so Anthony Comstock unsuccessfully pressed for laws that would enhance the distribution of information about abortion and contraception
D) and the availability of effective condoms was limited because we did not learn how to process (vulcanize) rubber until the early 20^th century

Question 19

Abortion reform got on the public agenda in the 1960's

A) with difficulty because the formerly taboo subject of sexuality was still not a topic of public discussion even with the sexual revolution
B) but even physicians who knew about the relationship of rubella to birth defects were hesitant to discuss abortion in public
C) and moved forward because the women's movement publicized the abortion issue by referring women to safe sources of abortion or to foreign countries where abortions were legal
D) with difficulty because the media would not cover the topic of abortion even if a celebrity sought an abortion

Question 20

The right to privacy, at the heart of the abortion debate

A) is not found in so many words in the U,S. Constitution but was developed by the U.S. Supreme Court over a long time as it interpreted the Constitution in cases that came before it
B) was enunciated with no basis in constitutional law in Roe v Wade in 1973
C) was in a law passed by a liberal congress influenced by feminists in the 1960s
D) enhanced the traditional powers of the states to regulate abortion

Question 21

The legal debate about abortion very much hinges on whether the term "person" in the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

A) refers only to citizens of the United States or also includes illegal immigrants
B) refers only to a live individual after birth, or also to a fetus before birth
C) refers only to an adult woman or whether it also includes an adolescent
D) refers only to mothers who are seeking third trimester abortions or only to mothers seeking second trimester abortions

Question 22

One implication of the fact that the right to privacy included the right to have an abortion was that

A) the states right to write laws about abortion was greatly expanded
B) the state's right to legislate about abortion was taken over by municipalities so abortion law was different in every town in a state
C) the state's right to write a law making an abortion performed in the first trimester by a licensed professional a criminal act was blocked
D) only the governor of each state could say what the law allowing or restricting abortions would be

Question 23

As the political leadership of the country changed and as new U.S. Supreme Court justices were appointed to the Court

A) not much changed because the Roe v. Wade decision was by then so accepted in the nation
B) new state laws banning abortion were routinely upheld by the Court because it was recognizing the state's right to legislate in this area
C) new state laws banning minors from obtaining abortions with or without parental consent were passed by some states and accepted by the Court
D) the right to privacy in matters of reproduction was upheld in new cases as a matter of stare decisis

Question 24

In the U.S. Supreme Court's analysis of a woman's interest in terminating her pregnancy, the justices included

A) a psychological proposition that liberty included the right to define one's own beliefs about existence, and of the mystery of human life without state compulsion
B) a social proposition that a woman's control over her reproductive life was essential to equal participation in the social and economic life of the nation
C) the idea that a woman did not have to notify her husband before she had an abortion
D) all of the above

Question 25

Teenage pregnancy is

A) important because most pregnancies in women under 19 are unintended and many unintended pregnancies end in an abortion
B) good for the nation because the new babies become economic consumers
C) unimportant as a social problem because single mothers can always go on welfare
D) unimportant because teenagers do not have any constitutional right to privacy in reproductive matters

Question 26

In ruling on cases involving minors, The U.S. Supreme Court

A) has said that immature minors do not have a right of privacy in reproductive matters
B) has said that even immature minors have a right to privacy in reproductive matters, but it is subject to more restrictions than there are on adult women
C) has ruled that an adolescent who is living at home must notify at least one parent even if she doesn't want her parents to know and can't go to court for permission for an abortion
D) has upheld a law requiring notification of two parents for an abortion and not allowing a girl to go to court first to avoid notifying her parents

Question 27

The U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion on adolescent abortion and notification of two parents

A) was based on the body of developmental research on adolescent decision-making
B) was strongly influenced by research showing the parental notification law created problems between the adolescent and her family
C) deferred to legislative prerogative and the tradition of supporting the parent's role despite the research cited in the minority opinion showing that two parent notification did not enhance communication between parents and adolescents about the abortion decision
D) was based on the idea that two parents would best serve the adolescents interests and that the intervention of a court interfered with parental prerogatives

Question 28

The general law about adolescents consenting to abortions

A) was written to be consistent with what is known in the developmental psychology literature about adolescent decision-making abilities
B) was written also to give parents veto power over decisions made by minors to obtain medical care for conditions such as substance abuse, family planning, pregnancy care, and venereal disease
C) presumes that adolescents are fully competent to consent to an abortion and do not need the parent's maturity, experience and ability to help make complex judgments
D) provides that an adolescent can consent to an abortion, provided the adolescent can convince a judge she is mature enough to make the decision

Question 29

The research on adolescent decision-making about health care shows that

A) youth 15 and older are fairly competent to make health care decisions
B) youth under 18 are too emotional and too impulsive to make a reasoned decision about health care
C) minors as young as 13 had about the same knowledge and information about pregnancy and abortion as those over 18
D) decisions about an abortion made by minors under 18 rarely involve any value clarification

Question 30

Submitting briefs summarizing research on adolescent decision-making to the U.S. Supreme Court was criticized because

A) the research was too sparse
B) the methods were oversimplified
C) the conclusions were not well enough accepted in the scientific community
D) all of the above

Question 31

Research on adolescents informing parents about pregnancies and abortions showed that if there was no law requiring parental notification or consent

A) almost none voluntarily notified their parents
B) younger minors were more likely to inform their parents than older minors
C) a large majority of college age women informed their parents voluntarily
D) adolescents informed their fathers as often as they did their mothers

Question 32

Adolescents who consider obtaining an abortion and consider confiding in their parents

A) find it easy to do so because most have had good communication about sex with their parents
B) fear that their parents will not pressure them one way or another, but leave the decision up to them
C) do so less often than sharing their problem with their best friend
D) want their parents to punish them to relieve their guilt at getting pregnant

Question 33

After parental notification or consent laws took effect in a state,

A) most adolescents simply ignored the law and obtained abortions using false identification cards showing they were over 18
B) many used the judicial bypass to avoid telling their parents
C) no adolescents were unable to obtain abortions without parental consent and they had to tell their parents
D) none went to nearby states because almost all states have the same legal requirements

Question 34

In order to be upheld as constitutional, a state law requiring parental notification or consent for an abortion must have a provision

A) prohibiting adolescents from informing their parents
B) for a judicial bypass allowing the adolescent to seek a court order barring their parents from punishing them because they had an abortion
C) for a judicial bypass allowing the adolescent to seek a court order permitting them to have an abortion without first notifying their parents
D) requiring the presence of the male who might have fathered the child so he could give his assent to the abortion

Question 35

Research on adolescents who went to court to use the judicial bypass showed that

A) the adolescents enjoyed the hour long interview with the judge about their personal lives
B) many adolescents found the experience invasive of their privacy and embarrassing
C) most were denied abortions without parental involvement because the adolescents were too immature to make the decision
D) the adversary process in which they were represented by highly paid lawyers was helpful

Question 36

Research on adolescents who went to court to use the judicial bypass showed that

A) judges found the minor was mature in almost all cases or that the abortion was in the minor's best interest
B) the process of actually getting an abortion was speeded up because of going to court
C) in one state at least there was no reason to "judge shop" because all the judges had the reputation of granting the adolescents permission for the abortion
D) the processes to get into court were easy to understand and to use and made the court easily accessible

Question 37

Research on the parental notification and consent statutes showed that

A) births to adolescent mothers in the state increased sharply after the law was passed because it was more difficult for the adolescent to obtain an abortion
B) contrary to expectations, the law probably contributed to an increase in sexual activity by teen aged females
C) contrary to expectations, the law seemed to have had as much an effect on the sexual behavior of older women as it did on the sexual behavior of adolescents
D) there was a decline in both the birthrate and the abortion rate among teenagers, but because of other factors it is difficult to attribute the decline to the law on notification and consent

Question 38

A pregnant adolescent has the choice

A) to carry the baby to term and keep it
B) to carry the baby to term and give it up for adoption
C) to have an abortion
D) any of the above

Question 39

Research on adolescents who had an abortion shows that

A) in the short run and over time the rate of post abortion emotional distress is low and ends to decline over time
B) most adolescents who had an abortion suffer great emotional distress later in life
C) the public health literature contains many references to a post abortion epidemic of mental illness among the one million women a year who have had abortions
D) the adolescents who kept their babies and did not give them, up for adoption fared the best

Question 40

Research on post abortion adjustment of adolescents shows that

A) almost all give up their babies for adoption
B) those who have an abortion do better in school than those who keep their babies, but there may be a selection bias that limits interpretation of the finding
C) those who became mothers at a young age did better in the short run than those who had abortions in terms of educational and occupational attainment
D) there was no difference in educational and occupational attainment between those who kept their babies and those who had abortions

Question 41

Compared to adolescents who had an abortion, those who kept the baby

A) were more likely to be on welfare
B) faced barriers in returning to school
C) had children who showed a high frequency of school failure and delinquency
D) all of the above