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Abortion is no minor dispute--40 to 60 million abortions occur each year worldwide. In India in 1992 there were 600,000 recorded abortions and an unknown number unrecorded. There are approximately 26 million live births per year in India. In the USA, one-third of pregnancies end by abortion--98% for elective, non-medical reasons. Rumania holds the world record for abortions: in 1965, there were 1,115,000 abortions out of a total population of 19 million, an astounding four abortions per live birth.
The abortion debate raging so intensely in most of the world today is essentially a theological dispute over the definition of life. Most conservative branches of the world's religions hold that life begins at conception, concluding therefore that killing of a fetus is a form of murder. Liberal members of many religions and those with no religion hold that until the fetus can exist independently outside the womb, it is incorrect to consider it a full human life.
[Excerpted From Hinduism Today April 1996 - Volume 18, Number 4 with permission], Please visit Hinduism Today site.
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