The Ethics of Abortion in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Ethics of Abortion

First published Wed May 14, 2025

Abortion is the intentional termination of a pregnancy, either via surgery or via the taking of medication. Ordinary people disagree about abortion: many people think abortion is deeply morally wrong, while many others think abortion is morally permissible. Philosophy has much to contribute to this discussion, by distinguishing and clarifying different arguments against abortion, distinguishing and clarifying different responses to those arguments, offering novel arguments against abortion, offering novel defenses of abortion, and offering novel views about the relevant issues at stake.

This entry’s central question is: is abortion morally wrong? This question has important legal and political implications. If abortion is morally wrong, it is nevertheless an open and further question whether abortion should be outlawed or legally restricted in some way. It is also a substantive question how a society should decide whether to outlaw or restrict abortion. This entry focuses on the moral question and does not delve into these important legal and political questions.

The first six parts of this entry present six arguments against abortion. Subsections of those parts present responses to these arguments – that is, defenses of abortion. The seventh part discusses why the ethics of abortion matters.

• 1. The argument from a right to life
  • 1.1 The equivocation objection
  • 1.2 The violinist case objection
  • 1.3 What is a right to life?
  • 1.4 Potentiality
  • 1.5 The self-consciousness objection
  • 1.6 The miscarriage objection
• 2. The argument from loss
  • 2.1 The moral status objection
  • 2.2 The future-like-ours objection
  • 2.3 How this relates to the violinist case argument
• 3. The argument from the Golden Rule
• 4. The argument from intrinsic value
• 5. The argument from moral risk
• 6. The expressive argument against selective abortion
  • 6.1 The burdens objection
  • 6.2 The objection from preventing disability
  • 6.3 The objection from lack of harm
  • 6.4 The objection from equivocation about value
• 7. Why the ethics of abortion matters
• Bibliography
  • Further Reading
• Academic Tools
• Other Internet Resources
• Related Entries