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Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health:

Abortion Laws

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The United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994, recognized unsafe abortion as a major public health concern. The World Health Organization estimates that about 75,000 women die each year from unskilled abortion. Damage to women's health and the burden of care that falls on often-scarce hospital resources also add to the costly impact of poorly performed abortion on public health systems.

Abortions are usually performed without adequate skill because of laws that make safe, medically performed abortion services unlawful. Within the last two centuries, and particularly during the twentieth century, abortion has been criminalized. It was only in the closing decades of the last century that laws have recognized women's needs and rights to have access to safe abortion services.

Historically, many customary laws condemned the interruption of pregnancy, whether by herbal or invasive means, because of the harm it presented to women. Pregnancy was evidenced only at about the end of the first trimester of pregnancy (at about 13 weeks), the stage called quickening. Church courts imposed more severe sanctions than secular courts, and were more concerned with unborn human life and abortions that occurred earlier in pregnancy. The first abortion legislation enacted in the English-speaking world was an English law of 1803 that punished whoever acted "to cause and procure the miscarriage of any woman then being quick with child." Later enactments more strictly imposed liability on pregnant women themselves, and, because proof that women had been "quick with child" was often difficult to establish, the offense was redefined as occurring whether women had "quickened" or not.

Advances in medicine in time provided better understanding of human conception and gestation, directing more attention to fetal and embryonic life. For instance, the Roman Catholic Church, whose moral teachings had been reflected in laws of many European countries, had condemned abortion after the stage of development at which it believed the soul had entered the body before birth. In 1869, however, it accepted that protected life began at conception. This made abortion a crime in many legal systems at any stage of gestation. Modern developments in abortion laws can be traced from when abortion was controlled only as a crime to be punished to its later legal accommodation to protect the health and well-being of pregnant women and their dependent born children and to its modern recognition as a woman's right to lawful choice.

The Crime of Abortion

The laws of many countries, particularly those that experienced colonization by European countries and are influenced by religious doctrines, continue to view abortion only as a criminal offense. Some countries whose criminal laws punish the willful taking of human life reinforce the prohibition of abortion by adding, sometimes in their national constitutions, that human life begins at conception. Punishments vary from a few years' custody to life imprisonment. Under Nazi occupation, France imposed a punishment of execution. Almost all laws recognize, however, that abortion procedures aimed in good faith to save a woman's life do not offend the criminal law, or are at least excusable, nonpunishable violations.

Abortions for Health and Welfare Purposes

In the mid-1960s, recognition grew that women often sought abortion for conscientious reasons, and that its medical restriction could be oppressive and unjust, causing women acting for justifiable reasons to go to unskilled illegal practitioners or to make crude interventions in their own bodies. Britain's Abortion Act of 1967, as amended in 1990, decriminalizes abortion before the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy if "the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family." Abortion also became lawful after twenty-four weeks when necessary to prevent risk to the life or grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman, and when "there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped." Health care providers, however, have a right of conscientious objection, and cannot be required to participate in abortion procedures.

Since 1967, about seventy-five countries in all regions of the world, including Guyana, India, South Africa, and Romania, have liberalized their abortion laws. Reformed laws allow abortion at various times from conception to twelve or more weeks, and to save life, health, and other interests. Perhaps the best-known reforming court judgment was made by the United States Supreme Court in 1973, in the case of Roe v. Wade. The Court recognized that a woman has a constitutionally protected right to terminate pregnancy until her fetus is viable, which is at the end of the second trimester of pregnancy (about twenty-four weeks' gestation), and that after viability states may regulate abortion to save the life or health of the mother. The judgment triggered a strong backlash, and continuing attempts have been made to have the Court reverse the judgment—and to change the Court's composition for this purpose. The Court was criticized for making new law, although sympathetic analysts found the Court had simply restored the law as it stood in 1787, when the United States wrote its Constitution and adopted much of the pre-1803 English criminal law.

Abortion As a Right of Women

An increasing number of countries now recognize a woman's right to exercise abortion choice for a time, usually until about twelve weeks after the beginning of pregnancy, and allow the procedure afterwards when faced with health, social, or other risk. In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada, in the case of R. v. Morgentaler, held the country's restrictive abortion law unconstitutional. The Chief Justice found that "forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction, to carry a fetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations is a profound interference with a woman's body and thus a violation of security of the person." The law was accordingly ruled void, and abortion is now regulated like any other medical procedure, allowing a woman to make her decision according to her own ethical judgment.

Human rights laws are increasingly giving priority to women's health, dignity, and capacity as the principal decision makers over their own reproduction. Countries whose laws criminalize abortion and compromise women's health and welfare are facing louder calls for reform. To counter this, conservative governments and religious authorities support restrictive laws and urge more prohibitions against abortion.

(SEE ALSO: Abortion; Maternal and Child Health; Public Health and the Law)

Bibliography

Boland, R. (1994). "Abortion Law World-Wide: A Survey of Recent Developments." In Essays in Honor of Jan Stepan, eds. I. Bednarikova and F. C. Chapman. Zurich: Schulthess Polygraphischer.

Cook, R. J.; Dickens, B. R.; and Bliss, L. E. (1999). "International Development in Abortion Law from 1988–1998." American Journal of Public Health 89(4): 579–586.

Rakman, A.; Katziol, L.; and Henshaw, S. K. (1998). "A Global Review of Laws on Induced Abortion, 1985–1997." International Family Planning Prospectus 24:56–64.

— REBECCA J. COOK


Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Abortion law

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International status of abortion law:
  Legal on request
  Legal for rape, maternal life, health, mental health, socioeconomic factors, and/or fetal defects
  Illegal with exception for rape, maternal life, health, fetal defects, and/or mental health
  Illegal with exception for rape, maternal life, health, and/or mental health
  Illegal with exception for maternal life, health, and/or mental health
  Illegal with no exceptions
  Varies
  No information
[1]

Abortion law is legislation and common law which pertains to the provision of abortion. Abortion has been a controversial subject in many societies through history because of the moral, ethical, practical, and political power issues that surround it. It has been banned frequently and otherwise limited by law. However, abortions continue to be common in many areas where they are illegal; abortion rates are similar in countries where the procedure is legal and in countries where it is not according to the World Health Organization (WHO),[2] due to unavailability of modern contraceptives in areas where abortion is illegal.[3] The number of abortions worldwide is declining due to increased access to contraception according to WHO.[2] Almost 2/3 of the world's women currently reside in countries where abortion may be obtained on request for a broad range of social, economic or personal reasons. Abortion laws vary widely by country, ranging from those in Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Malta and Vatican City, which ban the procedure entirely;[4] to those in the United Kingdom and the United States, which restrict abortion after the point of fetal viability; and those in Canada, Vietnam and China which have removed abortion completely from their criminal code.


Contents

History

Abortion has been part of family planning since ancient times, with natural remedies being found amongst a wide variety of tribal people and in all our written sources. Our earliest texts contain no mention of abortion or abortion law. When it does appear, it is entailed in concerns about male property rights, preservation of social order, and the duty to produce fit citizens for the state or community. The harshest penalties were generally reserved for a woman who procured an abortion against her husband's wishes, and for slaves who produced abortion in a woman of high status. Religious texts often contained severe condemnations of abortion, recommending penance but seldom enforcing secular punishment.

As a matter of common law in England and the United States, abortion was illegal anytime after quickening – when the movements of the fetus could first be felt by the woman. Under the born alive rule, the fetus was not considered a "reasonable being" in rerum natura; and abortion was not treated as murder in English law.

In the 19th century, many Western countries began to use statutes to codify or place further restrictions on abortion. Pro-life forces were led by a combination of conservative groups opposed to abortion on moral grounds, and by medical professionals who were concerned about the danger presented by the procedure and the regular involvement of non-medical personnel in performing abortions. It became clear in the following years, however, that illegal abortions continued to take place in large numbers even where abortions were expressly illegal.[citation needed] It was difficult to obtain sufficient evidence to prosecute the women and abortion doctors, and judges and juries were often reluctant to convict. Henry Morgentaler, for instance, was never convicted by a jury. (He was acquitted by a jury in the 1973 court case, but the acquittal was overturned by five judges on the Quebec Court of Appeal in 1974. He went to prison, appealed, and was again acquitted. In total, he served 10 months, suffering a heart attack while in solitary confinement.) Many[citation needed] were also outraged at the invasion of privacy and the medical problems resulting from abortions taking place illegally in medically dangerous circumstances. Political movements soon coalesced around the legalization of abortion and liberalization of existing laws.

By the early 20th century, many countries had begun to legalize abortions when performed to protect the life of the woman, and in some cases to protect the health of the woman. Under Vladimir Lenin, the Soviet Union legalized all abortions in 1920, but this was fully reversed in 1936 by Joseph Stalin in order to increase population growth. In the 1930s, several countries (Poland, Turkey, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Mexico) legalized abortion in some special cases (rape, threat to mother's health, fetal malformation). In 1948 abortion was legalized in Japan, 1952 in Yugoslavia (on a limited basis) and 1955 in the Soviet Union (on demand). Some Soviet allies (Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania) legalized abortion in the late fifties under Soviet pressure[citation needed]. The adoption of contraceptives in the 1950s and 1960s in Western countries resulted in comparatively few statutory changes on abortion law. In Great Britain, the Abortion Act of 1967 clarified and prescribed abortions as legal up to 28 weeks. Other countries soon followed, including Canada (1969), the United States (1973 in most states, pursuant to the federal Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion nationwide), Tunisia (1973), France (1975), Austria (1975), New Zealand (1977), Italy (1978), the Netherlands (1980) and Belgium (1990). However, these countries vary greatly in the circumstances under which abortion is permitted. In 1975, the West German Supreme Court struck down a law legalizing abortion, holding that they contradict the constitution's human rights guarantees. In 1976 a law was adopted which enabled abortions up to 12 weeks. After Germany's reunification, despite the legal status of abortion in the former East Germany, a compromise was reached which deemed most abortions up to 22 weeks legal.

International law

In addition to national and regional laws, there are treaties that may actually be enforced on or within their parties. However, there is an inherent difficulty in the enforcement of international law due to the issue that state sovereignty poses. As such, the effectiveness of even binding multi-national efforts to legislate the rights to life and liberty in general, or abortion in specific, is difficult to measure.

National laws

On average, the frequency of abortions is similar in developing countries (where abortion is generally restricted) to the frequency in developed countries (where abortion is generally much less restricted).[5][6] Abortion rates are very difficult to measure in locations where those abortions are illegal,[7] and pro-life groups have criticized researchers for allegedly jumping to conclusions about those numbers.[8] According to the Guttmacher Institute and the United Nations Population Fund, the abortion rate in developing countries is largely attributable to lack of access to modern contraceptives; assuming no change in abortion laws, providing that access to contraceptives would result in about 25 million fewer abortions annually, including almost 15 million fewer unsafe abortions.[3]

The following series of tables present the current abortion legislation of the world's nations as divided by continent. Actual access to abortion may vary significantly on the basis of geography, income, cost, health care, social factors, and other issues. Many jurisdictions also place other restrictions on abortion access, including waiting periods, the provision of information, the assent of multiple doctors, and parental notification. Legend

  • Yes – Legal
  • No – Illegal
  • 1st – Legal during 1st trimester only (exact date – e.g. number of weeks – may vary)
  • 2nd – Legal during 1st and 2nd trimester only (exact date may vary)
  • Restricted – Legal but subject to significant restrictions
  • Varies – Varies by region
  •  ? – Information is unavailable or the law is too ambiguous


Africa

Country To protect woman's life Physical health Mental health Rape Fetal defects Socio-economic factors On request
 Algeria Yes 2nd 2nd No No No No
 Angola 1st No No No No No No
 Benin Yes No ? Yes Yes No No
 Botswana Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
 Burkina Faso Yes Yes Yes 1st Yes No No
 Burundi Yes Yes ? No No No No
 Cameroon Yes Yes ? Yes No No No
 Cape Verde Yes Yes Yes 1st Yes 1st 1st
 Central African Republic Yes No No No No No No
 Chad Yes Yes ? No Yes No No
 Comoros Yes Yes ? No No No No
 Republic of the Congo Yes No No No No No No
 Democratic Republic of the Congo Yes No No No No No No
 Côte d'Ivoire Yes No No No No No No
 Djibouti Yes ? ? No No No No
 Egypt Yes No No No No No No
 Equatorial Guinea Yes Yes ? No No No No
 Eritrea Yes Yes ? No No No No
 Ethiopia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
 Gabon Yes No No No No No No
 Gambia Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Ghana Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
 Guinea Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
 Guinea-Bissau Yes 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st
 Kenya Restricted Restricted Restricted No No No No
 Lesotho Yes No No No No No No
 Liberia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
 Libya Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No
 Madagascar Yes No No No No No No
 Malawi Restricted No No No No No No
 Mali Yes No No Yes No No No
 Mauritania Yes No No No No No No
 Mauritius Yes No No No No No No
 Morocco 1st 1st 1st No No No No
 Mozambique Yes Yes Yes No No No 1st (illegal, but selectively allowed)[9]
 Namibia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
 Niger Yes No No No No No No
 Nigeria Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Rwanda Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 São Tomé and Príncipe 1st No No No No No No
 Senegal Yes No No No No No No
 Seychelles 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st No No
 Sierra Leone Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Somalia Yes No No No No No No
 South Africa (details) Yes 2nd 2nd 2nd Yes 2nd 1st
 Sudan Yes No No Yes No No No
 Swaziland Yes No No No No No No
 Tanzania Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Togo 1st ? ? ? ? No No
 Tunisia Yes 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st
 Uganda Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Western Sahara ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
 Zambia Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
 Zimbabwe Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No

Asia

East Asia

Country To protect woman's life Physical health Mental health Rape Fetal defects Socio-economic factors On request
 Brunei Yes No No No No No No
 Cambodia[10] Yes 1st 1st Yes Yes 1st 1st
 China Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Hong Kong [11][12] Yes 2nd (up to 24 weeks) 2nd (up to 24 weeks) 2nd (up to 24 weeks) 2nd (up to 24 weeks) No No
 Indonesia Yes No No No No No No
 Japan (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (de facto under socio-economic factors)
 North Korea Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 South Korea [13] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (de facto) Yes (de facto as abortions are not punished)
 Laos No No No No No No No
 Malaysia 1st 1st 1st No No No No
 Mongolia Restricted Restricted 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st
 Myanmar Yes No No No No No No
 Philippines (details) Yes No No No No No No
 Singapore [14] Yes 2nd (up to 24 weeks) 2nd (up to 24 weeks) 2nd (up to 24 weeks) Yes 2nd (up to 24 weeks) 2nd (up to 24 weeks)
 Thailand Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
 Taiwan Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Law is unclear
 Vietnam Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Central and South Asia

Country To protect woman's life Physical health Mental health Rape Fetal defects Socio-economic factors On request
 Afghanistan Yes No No No No No No
 Bangladesh Yes 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st
 Bhutan[15] Yes No No No No No No
 India (details) Yes Yes 2nd (20 weeks) 2nd (20 weeks) 2nd (20 weeks) 2nd (20 weeks) 1st
 Kazakhstan 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 1st
 Kyrgyzstan 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 1st
 Maldives No No No No No No No
 Nepal Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 1st 1st
 Pakistan Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
 Sri Lanka Yes No No No No No No
 Tajikistan 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 1st
 Turkmenistan 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 1st
 Uzbekistan 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 1st

West Asia

Country To protect woman's life Physical health Mental health Rape Fetal defects Socio-economic factors On request
 Bahrain Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Iran (details) Yes No No No Yes No No
 Iraq Yes No No No No No No
 Israel (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Varies Varies
 Jordan Restricted Restricted Restricted No No No No
 Kuwait Restricted Restricted Restricted No Restricted No No
 Lebanon Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Varies
 Oman Yes No No No No No No
 Qatar Yes Yes Yes No Restricted No No
 Saudi Arabia 1st Restricted Restricted No No No No
 Syria Restricted No No No No No No
 United Arab Emirates Restricted No No No No No No
 Yemen Yes No No No No No No

Europe

Abortion is legal in nearly every European country although there is a wide variation in the restrictions under which it is permitted.[16] Although nearly every European country makes abortion available on demand during the first trimester, when it comes to later-term abortions, there are very few with laws as liberal as those of the United States.[17] Restrictions on abortion are most stringent in countries that are more strongly observant of the Catholic faith.[16]

Western Europe

Country To protect woman's life Physical health Mental health Rape Fetal defects Socio-economic factors On request
 Andorra (details) Yes No No No No No No
 Austria (details) Yes Yes Yes 1st Yes 1st 1st [18]
 Belgium (details) Yes 1st 1st 1st Yes 1st 1st
 Denmark(details) 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st[18]
 Faroe Islands 2nd No No 2nd 2nd No No
 Finland (details) Yes Yes Yes 2nd 2nd 2nd (de jure) No; (de facto) Yes
 France (details) Yes Yes Yes 1st Yes 1st 1st
 Germany (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (de jure) No; (de facto) Yes
 Guernsey
 Iceland (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No[19]
 Ireland (details) (de jure) Yes; (de facto) No No No No No No No
 Italy (details) Yes 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st
 Jersey
 Liechtenstein (details) 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st
 Luxembourg Yes Restricted Restricted Restricted Restricted Restricted No
 Malta (details) (de jure) No; (de facto) Yes (de jure) No; (de facto) Yes No (de jure) No; (de facto) 1st (de jure) No; (de facto) restricted No No
 Monaco (details) Yes No No Yes Yes No No
 Netherlands (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Norway (details)[20] 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st
 Northern Ireland[21](details) Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Portugal (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 1st
 San Marino Yes No No No No No No
 Spain (details)[22] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Sweden (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Switzerland (details)[23] Yes 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st
 United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland; details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (de jure) No (with exceptions); (de facto) 2nd
 Vatican City No No No No No No No

Eastern Europe

Country To protect woman's life Physical health Mental health Rape Fetal defects Socio-economic factors On request
 Albania Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Armenia 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd
 Azerbaijan Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Varies
 Belarus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Bosnia and Herzegovina Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Bulgaria Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Croatia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Cyprus (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
 Czech Republic (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Estonia (details) Yes Yes Yes 1st Yes 1st 1st
 Georgia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Greece (details) Yes Yes Yes 2nd 2nd 1st 1st
 Hungary Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Latvia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Lithuania Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Macedonia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Moldova Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Montenegro Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Poland (details) Yes Yes Yes 1st 2nd No No
 Romania (details) Yes Yes Yes 1st 1st 1st 1st
 Russia (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Serbia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Slovakia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Slovenia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Turkey Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Ukraine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

North and Central America

Country To protect woman's life Physical health Mental health Rape Fetal defects Socio-economic factors On request
 Antigua and Barbuda 1st No No No No No No
 Bahamas Yes Yes Yes ? ? No No
 Barbados Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
 Belize No No No No No No No
 Canada (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Costa Rica Yes Yes ? No No No No
 Cuba 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st
 Dominica Yes No No No No No No
 Dominican Republic (details) No No No No No No No
 El Salvador (details) No No No No No No No
 Grenada Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Guatemala (details) Yes No No No No No No
 Haiti Yes ? No ? ? No No
 Honduras Restricted No No No No No No
 Jamaica Restricted Restricted Restricted No No No No
 Mexico (details) Varies Varies Varies Varies Varies Varies Varies
 Nicaragua (details) No No No No No No No
 Panama Yes Yes No 1st Yes No No
 Saint Kitts and Nevis Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Saint Lucia Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
 Trinidad and Tobago Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 United States (details) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Oceania

Country To protect woman's life Physical health Mental health Rape Fetal defects Socio-economic factors On request
 Australia (details) Varies Varies Varies Varies Varies Varies Varies
 Cook Islands Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Fiji Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes No
 Kiribati Yes No No No No No No
 Marshall Islands Restricted No No No No No No
 Federated States of Micronesia Yes No No No No No No
 Nauru Restricted Restricted Restricted No No No No
 New Zealand (details) Yes Yes Yes yes Yes No No (de facto)
 Niue Yes ? ? No No No No
 Palau Yes No No No No No No
 Papua New Guinea Restricted Restricted Restricted No No No No
 Samoa Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Solomon Islands Restricted No No No No No No
 Tonga Yes No No No No No No
 Tuvalu No No No No No No No
 Vanuatu Yes Yes Yes No No No No

South America

Country To protect woman's life Physical health Mental health Rape Fetal defects Socio-economic factors On request
 Argentina (details) Yes Restricted No Restricted No No No
 Bolivia Yes Yes ? Yes No No No
 Brazil (details) Yes No No Yes Yes[24] No No
 Chile (details) Restricted No No No No No No
 Colombia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
 Ecuador Yes Yes Yes Restricted No No No
 Guyana Yes Yes Yes Yes 1st 1st 1st
 Paraguay Yes No No No No No No
 Peru Yes Yes Yes No No No No
 Suriname Yes No No No No No No
 Uruguay (details) No No No No No No No
 Venezuela Yes No No No No No No

Legal restrictions on later abortion

Gnome globe current event.svg
 Parts of this section (those related to PMID 18957353) are outdated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (June 2010)

As of 1998, among the 152 most populous countries, 54 either banned abortion entirely or permitted it only to save the life of the pregnant woman.[25] In addition, another 44 of the 152 most populous countries generally banned late-term abortions after a particular gestational age: 12 weeks (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Georgia, Greece, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the former Yugoslavia), 13 weeks (Italy), 14 weeks (Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, Germany, Hungary, and Romania), 18 weeks (Sweden), viability (Netherlands and to some extent the United States), and 24 weeks (Singapore and the United Kingdom [Northern Ireland excluded]).[25]

Case law

Australia

Bangladesh

Chancery Law Chronicles- First Bangladesh Online Case Law Database [3]

Canada

Germany

Ireland

United States

European Court of Human Rights

See also

Notes

  1. ^ World Abortion Policies 2007, United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division.
  2. ^ a b Abortion Rates Similar in Countries That Legalize, Prohibit Procedure, a WHO Study Says
  3. ^ a b Singh, Susheela et al. Adding it Up: The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Family Planning and Newborn Health, pages 17, 19, and 27 (New York: Guttmacher Institute and United Nations Population Fund 2009): "Some 215 million women in the developing world as a whole have an unmet need for modern contraceptives…. If the 215 million women with unmet need used modern family planning methods....[that] would result in about 22 million fewer unplanned births; 25 million fewer abortions; and seven million fewer miscarriages....If women’s contraceptive needs were addressed (and assuming no changes in abortion laws)...the number of unsafe abortions would decline by 73% from 20 million to 5.5 million." A few of the findings in that report were subsequently changed, and are available at: "Facts on Investing in Family Planning and Maternal and Newborn Health" (Guttmacher Institute 2010).
  4. ^ Boseley, Sarah (2010-06-11). "Nicaragua refuses to lift abortion ban". The Guardian. 
  5. ^ Culwell KR, Vekemans M, de Silva U, Hurwitz M (July 2010). "Critical gaps in universal access to reproductive health: Contraception and prevention of unsafe abortion". International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 110: S13–16. doi:10.1016/j.ijgo.2010.04.003. PMID 20451196. 
  6. ^ Shah I, Ahman E (December 2009). "Unsafe abortion: global and regional incidence, trends, consequences, and challenges". J Obstet Gynaecol Can 31 (12): 1149–58. PMID 20085681. "However, a woman’s chance of having an abortion is similar whether she lives in a developed or a developing region: in 2003 the rates were 26 abortions per 1000 women aged 15 to 44 in developed areas and 29 per 1000 in developing areas. The main difference is in safety, with abortion being safe and easily accessible in developed countries and generally restricted and unsafe in most developing countries" 
  7. ^ Sedgh, Gilda and Henshaw, Stanley. "Measuring the Incidence of Abortion in Countries With Liberal Laws" in Methodologies for Estimating Abortion Incidence and Abortion-Related Morbidity: A Review, (Guttmacher Institute 2010): "In countries with highly restrictive abortion laws, it is extremely difficult to obtain reliable counts of the numbers of procedures performed."
  8. ^ Rosenthal, Elizabeth. "Legal or Not, Abortion Rates Compare", The New York Times (2007-10-12): "Anti-abortion groups criticized the research, saying that the scientists had jumped to conclusions from imperfect tallies, often estimates of abortion rates in countries where the procedure was illegal."
  9. ^ Libombo, Aida, &, Bay Ustá, Momade. (2001). Mozambique Abortion Situation. Retrieved October 27, 2006.
  10. ^ www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/doc/cambod1.doc
  11. ^ According to the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Despite Hong Kong technically being part of the People's Republic of China, it still maintains its own legal system and practices English Common Law. As such, the majority of Chinese laws do not apply in Hong Kong. The power of final judgment are vested in the court of final appeal of Hong Kong.
  12. ^ Assent from 2 doctors are required. See also Law of Hong Kong, Cap 212 Offences Against the Person Ordinance, Sections 46, 47, 47A and Law of Hong Kong, Cap 200 Crimes Ordinance, Sections 47, 118, 119, 120 and 121
  13. ^ South Korea Confronts Open Secret of Abortion
  14. ^ Termination of Pregnancy/Abortion in Singapore. [1]. Retrieved October 29, 2011.
  15. ^ World Health Organization. (2005). Improving Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in the South-East Asia Region. Retrieved October 3, 2007.
  16. ^ a b Ostergren, Robert C.; Le Bossé, Mathias (7 March 2011). The Europeans: A Geography of People, Culture, and Environment. Guilford Press. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-59385-384-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=y-1fwix23zMC&pg=PA203. Retrieved 30 December 2011. 
  17. ^ Jenkins, Philip (11 May 2007). God's continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's religious crisis. Oxford University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-19-531395-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=5FLMm69jJDkC&pg=PT91. Retrieved 30 December 2011. 
  18. ^ a b "Europe's abortion rules". BBC News. 12 February 2007. Archived from the original on 31 July 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6235557.stm. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
  19. ^ http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/doc/iceland.doc
  20. ^ [www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/doc/norway.doc]
  21. ^ Q&A: Abortion in NI. (June 13 , 2001). BBC News. Retrieved October 27, 2006.
  22. ^ [2] Retrieved October, 31, 2011.
  23. ^ http://switzerland.angloinfo.com/countries/switzerland/abortion.asp
  24. ^ "Brazil lifts ban on aborting brain-damaged fetuses". Reuters UK. 13 April 2012. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/13/us-brazil-abortion-idUKBRE83C01D20120413. Retrieved 2012-04-13. 
  25. ^ a b Anika Rahman, Laura Katzive and Stanley K. Henshaw. A Global Review of Laws on Induced Abortion, 1985–1997, International Family Planning Perspectives (Volume 24, Number 2, June 1998).

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