Is abortion the same as murder?

When I took Mr. Satoru Ito(he is a professor of Religious Beliefs)'s class last year, he said that in the law, a baby is considered as a human being when his/her head is half out of the mother's body. From this point of view, abortion is not a murder as all of the body of the baby is still inside the mother. But thinking of losing a possibility of one life, I cannot strongly disagree that abortion is not same as murder.

National Abortion Federation

・The name of the group.
National Abortion Federation
・The specific issue the group deals with.
Abortion
・The group's mission statement and Goals that the group strives to achieve.
It is to ensure safe, legal and accessible abortion cae to promote health and justice for woman.
・Concrete ways that the NGO tries to achieve its goals.
Holding interns such as clinic defence intern, communications intern, public policy intern and training and education intern.
・How the group is different from others in its goals or methods?
・Groups with which it networks (i.e., cooperates with on projects or activities).
・How does the group keep itself running (i.e., by fund-raisning activities, donations, etc.)?
・If the group does fund-raising activities, please describe them.
They ask for donation on their home page.
・How does it recruit new members to the group?
You can request to be a member from the home page by filling in a form.
・How does it make the media interested in its activities?
・What's your overall impression of the group? Is it a group that you would ever consider joining?
I thought this group is a very active group but I don't know if I would ever consider joining because abortion is a problem that needs scientific knowledge to work on.

According to research

i made survey sheet using general questions written by sayuri, so you can answer here.(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=igCc1KyAdcWD8y7faaeERA_3d_3d)

i searched about countries where abortion is legal. You can see here. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/AbortionLawsMap.png)

i thought that the restriction of abortion is vague. In Japan(and some countries) it's regarded as legal in some cases,but how can we define it's legal or not? In Japan, the legal aborton is called 'therapeutic abortion'.(one of the ways of abortion to save mother from health problem) According to Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 276,352 numbers of abortion were used in Japan, in 2006. Then, are all of these abortions because of mothers' health problem? i don't think so. i feel a clear regulation is very necessary.

How much does it cost to have abortion in Japan?

There is a difference in cost needed to have abortion depending on the weeks of pregnancy because the treatment will be different.
According to Kanda Sanfujinka Hospital site, if mother was...

1. 5~11weeks pregnant
cost: 85,000 yen
hospitalized: no need to stay. Can go home in 2~3 hours.

2. 12~15 weeks pregnant
cost: 240,000 yen
hospitalized: need to stay 1 night.

3. 16~19 weeks pregnant
cost: 380,000 yen
hospitalized: need to stay 1 night.

4. 20~21 weeks pregnant
need to be considered to have surgery.

5. 22 weeks pregnant or more weeks pregnant
impossible to have surgery.

Questions we'll try to answer.

I'll list up questions below that was given ideas by Mr. Dias and our classmates as it might make us easier to answer.

Questions about specific facts
・In which countries is abortion legal?
・When were abortions first performed?
・Did countries make abortion illegal for similar reasons?
・What is the estimate for the number of illegal abortions performed in countries like the Philippines, where abortion is against the law?
・What are the risks involved in illegal abortions compared with legal ones?
・Does abortion affect the mother's body (mother's health)?
・How much does it cost to have abortion in Japan?

General questions that don't necessarily have clear or easy answers
・Is abortion the same as murder?
・Should a woman who gets an illegal abortion be fined or sent to jail?
・Should it be necessary for the man who got a woman pregnant to give consent for an abortion?
・Should minors have to get consent from their parents before an abortion is carried out?
・Abortion = taking away the baby's life.What is life? Is there any law that states what a life is?
・Is there any connection between the thought of abortion and baby post( akachan post)? If so, what are the reasons for such thought to be hold?
・Why some women want to have abortion?
・Does the general idea of abortion differ between religion?

What do u think

I learned from Sayuri's research that abortion means not just to kill the embryo but to give birth to baby except the time is not right. Then, if babies are born early, is it possible for them to live without having any handicap?

Looking up OED

I looked up the word "abortion" in OED. It said:

1. The act of giving untimely birth to offspring, premature delivery, miscarriage; the procuring of premature delivery so as to destroy offspring.

From this, I learnt that "abortion" means not just to kill the embryo but to give birth to baby except the time is not right. Also I found that the word "abort(noun)" has meaning of "to fail", which was a new idea to me. Because I thought abortion is done only on purpose.