A prime aim of abortion opponents in the United States is to have Roe v. Wade overturned. Similarly, abortion foes deny that they wish to restrict any legitimate choices that ought to be open to people. The competing labels for positions tends to blur over important differences in what can be advocated about abortion. In discussions of abortion it is of paramount importance to distinguish the variety of conclusions that can be advocated on the subject. Abortion ought to be legal in every instance.
Abortion ought to be illegal in every instance.
There is clearly a difference, for example, between the view that abortion is immoral and that it is illegal. It is possible to hold the views both that every instance of abortion is immoral and also that it should never be illegal. There are also several more qualified positions about abortion, which represent mid-ground between the relatively extreme positions that abortion is always moral, or never, and that it should always be legal, or never. That is, the qualified positions are that abortion is sometimes moral and at other times not, and in some cases it should be legal and in other cases not. Abortion should always be illegal, except in some special circumstances, for example, when the mother's long-term health or life is at stake, or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.