7 For Further Reading
These three widely-reprinted articles are the seminal philosophical writings on abortion:
- Thomson, Judith Jarvis. “A Defense of Abortion.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 1, no. 1 (1971): 47-66.
- Warren, Mary Anne. “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion.” The Monist (1973): 43-61.
- Marquis, Don. “Why Abortion Is Immoral.” The Journal of Philosophy 86, no. 4 (1989): 183-202.
David Boonin’s A Defense of Abortion provides a comprehensive and systematic critical overview of many arguments about abortion, and argues in defense of abortion:
And see his more recent book on abortion:
Richard Feldman’s Reason & Argument is the best “critical thinking” and argument identification and analysis text available:
And here are some other introductory readings by Nathan Nobis, and Nathan Nobis and Kristina Grob, on abortion:
- “Ethics and Abortion” at 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology (1000WordPhilosophy.com).
- “Early and Later Abortions: Ethics and Law” in Bob Fischer’s Ethics: Left and Right (Oxford University Press, forthcoming): this is, basically, a shorter, earlier version of this book.
- “Thinking Critically About Abortion” at Decaturish.com (2019): a philosophical letter to the editor for a Georgia newspaper.
- “Common Arguments about Abortion” and “Better (Philosophical) Arguments about Abortion,” by Nathan Nobis and Kristina Grob, in Noah Levin, ed., Introduction to Ethics: An Open Educational Resource (NGE Far Press, 2019) [both chapters]. This book is a development and expansion of these chapters.