According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global legal advocacy group, there are 24 countries in the world where abortion is completely banned. These include Andorra and Malta in Europe, El Salvador and Honduras in Central America, Senegal and Egypt in Africa, and the Philippines and Laos in Asia. About 90 million (5%) of women of reproductive age live in countries that completely ban abortion. Finally, there are countless policies additional to abortion laws in many countries, such as parental/marital consent (or a police report in cases of rape), restricting access to methods of determining the sex of the fetus, or requiring the pregnant woman to first see an ultrasound or listen to a fetal heartbeat. More than 100 other countries, states and territories allow abortion in certain cases, such as “to save a woman`s life.” The laws that allow abortion – from South Africa to Russia and from Ireland to Vietnam – vary widely in what they allow and at what stages of pregnancy. Controversies about the onset of pregnancy occur in various contexts, especially in the legal context, and are discussed especially in the abortion debate from the perspective of measuring the gestational age of pregnancy. Pregnancy can be measured at a number of appropriate points, including the day of the last menstrual period, ovulation, fertilization, implantation, and chemical detection. A common medical method for calculating gestational age is to measure pregnancy from the first day of the last menstrual cycle. [fd] However, not all jurisdictions use this measure for the purposes of abortion law; For example, countries such as Belgium, France and Luxembourg use the term “pregnancy” in abortion law to refer to the time that has elapsed since the sexual act that led to conception, which would be 2 weeks after the end of the last menstrual period.
[fe] While unwanted pregnancies in Africa have decreased by 15% over the past 30 years, abortions have increased by 13%, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Many African countries have restrictive abortion laws that only allow the procedure when the mother`s life is threatened, as in Nigeria, or in cases of rape, incest or fetal malformations, as in Botswana and Zimbabwe. These laws are generally interpreted generously to allow abortion in various circumstances. These countries often take into account a woman`s actual or reasonably foreseeable environment and her social or economic situation when considering the potential effects of pregnancy and childbirth. However, in most countries where abortion is legal, it is regulated by laws, including specific laws or as part of a broader health law. The Catholic Church remains very influential in Latin America and opposes the legalization of abortion. [34] The American Convention on Human Rights, to which 23 Latin American parties were members in 2013, states that human life begins at conception. In Latin America, abortion on demand is only legal in Cuba (1965), Uruguay (2012),[35] Argentina (2021),[32] Colombia (2022),[36] and parts of Mexico. [37] [38] Abortions are completely banned in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and are only permitted in certain limited circumstances in most other Latin American countries.
[34] The Center for Reproductive Rights notes that a new penal code is set to go into effect in Haiti in July, decriminalizing abortions for up to 12 weeks in cases of rape, incest, or “when women`s physical/mental health is at risk,” but critics believe the code could be changed before it is implemented. In recent decades, significant progress has been made in ensuring women`s access to abortion, with about 50 countries liberalizing their abortion laws. Some of these changes have been gradual, so that women can only have a legal abortion in life-threatening situations or when rape has caused their pregnancy. However, many of these changes were transformative and removed all restrictions on abortion in favor of women`s reproductive freedom. In 1973, the landmark decision concluded that the Constitution protects the decision to terminate a pregnancy as a fundamental matter of privacy. It set a precedent in the United States for nearly five decades — but was never codified into federal law. In 1973, Roe v. Wade gave women in the United States an absolute right to abortion within the first three months of pregnancy and limited rights beyond that. While abortion in one form or another is legal in every state under Roe, access to abortion has been eroded over the years in more than a dozen states. Texas, for example, passed a law in 2021 that allows residents to sue clinics and doctors for performing an abortion after six weeks. In Mississippi — the state at the center of the Supreme Court case — most abortions are banned after 15 weeks. In some countries, court rulings similar to Roe`s have opened the door to legalization.
But in many places, including much of Europe, lawmakers have passed laws that have expanded access to the procedure. Some countries allow abortion depending on the social or economic situation of the woman and taking into account the possible effects of pregnancy and childbirth. Latin America`s largest country has not completely banned abortion, but it considers abortion a crime in all but a few circumstances: if the pregnant woman was raped, if the pregnancy is the result of incest or sexual activity with a family member, or if the woman`s life would be endangered by continuing the pregnancy. These three exceptions are prevalent around the world and can be found in the abortion laws of many countries. Nearly 90% of countries in the world allow abortion, at least when the woman`s life is in danger. Most countries that allow abortion when a woman`s life is in danger also allow abortion for other reasons, such as when a woman`s health is at risk during pregnancy and in situations of rape or incest. Abortion laws vary widely from country to country and territory and have changed over time.