Chapter 5:
Abortion
Multiple Choice Questions
1) When did the U.S. Supreme Court issue its Roe v. Wade decision decriminalizing abortion?
a) 1973
b) 1962
c) 1984
d) 1959
2) The Roe v. Wade decision had which of the following effects?
a) It held that during the first trimester, states cannot restrict a woman’s right to an abortion.
b) It held that during the second trimester, states may place restrictions on abortion to
protect the health and safety of the pregnant women.
c) It held that during the third trimester, states may restrict abortion but only in ways that
still preserve the health and safety of the pregnant woman.
d) All of these choices
3) The Roe v. Wade decision was based on the constitutionally protected right to:
a) abortion.
b) privacy.
c) liberty.
d) life.
4) Which of the following terms describes an abortion that is required to save the life, or is
essential to preserving the health, of the mother?
a) therapeutic abortion
b) voluntary abortion
c) selective reduction
d) partial birth abortion
5) Which of the following was illegal in almost all the states prior to the Roe v. Wade decision?
a) nontherapeutic abortions only
b) therapeutic abortions only
c) both nontherapeutic and therapeutic abortions
d) neither of these were illegal
6) The Supreme Court case Doe v. Bolton opened the way for
a) partial-birth abortions.
b) abortion clinics.
c) therapeutic abortion.
d) elective abortion.
7) In what ways does Plan B work to prevent pregnancy?
a) It delays or prevents ovulation.
b) It inhibits fertilization.
c) It prevents a fertilized egg from implanting itself in the uterine wall
d) It delays or prevents ovulation or inhibits fertilization.
8) According to Mary Ann Warren, which of the following is or are true?
a) For a being to have a moral right to life it is sufficient that the being have the DNA of a
human.
b) The fact that a fetus physically resembles a human being at a certain stage is not
sufficient grounds for saying the fetus has a moral right to life at that stage.
c) A woman has a right to abort a fetus up to the point of viability—the point at which the
fetus could survive outside the womb—but not beyond that point.
d) All of these choices
9) What problem does J. J. Thomson set aside?
a) The problem of fetal personhood
b) The problem of partial birth abortion
c) The problem of unintended consequences
d) The problem that there is no constitutional right to privacy
10) What is Thomson’s violinist example supposed to be analogous to?
a) Involuntary pregnancy
b) Voluntary pregnancy
c) Partial birth abortion
d) Therapeutic abortion to save the mother’s life
11) Thomson believes that the right to life
a) is held only by adults.
b) is held only after the first trimester.
c) is not absolute.
d) is absolute.
12) Mary Anne Warren offers which of the following traits as essential for the concept of
personhood or humanity in the moral sense?
a) consciousness and the capacity to feel pain
b) reasoning skills and the ability to solve problems
c) self-motivated activity
d) all of these choices
13) Don Marquis believes that which of the following is morally wrong because it deprives a
person of the value of his/her future?
a) abortion
b) contraception
c) both abortion and contraception
d) emergency contraception
14) According to Judith Jarvis Thompson, which of the following is or are true?
a) Women have a moral right to an abortion under all circumstances.
b) If there is a conflict between a fetus’s right to life and a mother’s right to life, the fetus’s
right outweighs the mother’s.
c) If the reason for an abortion is trivial, the abortion is not legitimate
d) If there is a conflict between a fetus’s right to life and a mother’s right to life, the fetus’s
right only outweighs that of the mother after a certain period in the womb.
15) Who used the example of a person trapped in a tiny house with a growing child?
a) Marquis
b) Warren
c) Thomson
d) Lee and George
1) According to the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, states cannot impose any regulation
on abortions.
2) After the Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, the issue of abortion was settled and there have been
no further moral or legal challenges to the status of a woman’s right to have an abortion.
3) Some opponents of abortion hold that anyone taking Plan B drugs is always engaged in an
active moral wrong.
4) Some abortion activists hold that a fertilized ovum has full moral personhood status.
5) Between 50% and 80% of fertilized human ova fail to implant in the uterine lining.
6) The “Partial-Birth Abortion” controversy is fueled by misinformation.
7) The only barrier to a consensus on when an embryo is a person is a lack of scientific
knowledge about when this change takes place.
8) John T. Noonan argues that we can judge abortion morally wrong only under Christian tenets
and as such we should not be able to impose restrictions on abortions.
9) Judith Jarvis Thomson argues that a fetus cannot be given the moral status of a person and
therefore abortion is permissible.
10) Judith Jarvis Thomson argues that abortion should always be permissible under any and all
circumstances.
11) Judith Jarvis Thomson’s violinist case is analogous to pregnancy with voluntary intercourse
absent contraception.
12) Mary Ann Warren argues that women should have an unrestricted legal right to an abortion.
13) Mary Ann Warren argues that there is a difference between being a genetic human and a
moral human.
14) Patrick Lee believes that a complete human organism is a person.
15) Patrick Lee believes that human beings are only instrumentally valuable.