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Comment by listless | Hacker News Reader

Is the term “abortion” completely off the table these days? I keep seeing “reproductive rights” and I’m not sure how that’s different other than the marketing. Is there something else included in that term that is inclusive of abortion?

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Abortion may be the most politically prominent among reproductive rights, but "Women's reproductive rights may include some or all of the following: abortion-rights movements; birth control; freedom from coerced sterilization and contraception; the right to access good-quality reproductive healthcare; and the right to education and access in order to make free and informed reproductive choices." (per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproductive_rights, which cites https://web.archive.org/web/20080120140923/http://www.amnest...)

It's almost as if this hugely complex issue being summarised as "abortion - pro-life vs pro-choice" doesn't lead to a good outcome.

They fought all the way to the supreme court against having to pay for the pill for their employees, so no, in this case the term "reproductive rights" is not a difference of marketing.

For those who may not know, 'the pill' refers to birth control.

Good call on clarifying. To add, it's hormonal birth control for women that is also used to help with a number of other medical conditions, so it's also not solely used for contraception.

That's right. And using hormonal birth control for other things is not some rare edge case either. It's very common.

Off the top of my head, birth control. Hobby Lobby et al have tried to get a religious exemption to avoid having birth control covered by their employees' health insurance.

I thought the famous Hobby Lobby SCOTUS case wasn't abortion, it was contraceptive coverage in the health plan?

Slight of words, the goal is to make it a “right” so that when someone disagrees, there is a Mott and Bailey to throw out.

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