Related Research Articles
Intact dilation and extraction is a surgical procedure that removes an intact fetus from the uterus. The procedure is used both after miscarriages and for abortions in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.
Abortion in the United Kingdom is legally available through the Abortion Act 1967 in Great Britain, and the Abortion (No.2) Regulations 2020.
Abortion in Ireland is regulated by the Health Act 2018. Abortion is permitted in Ireland during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, and later in cases where the pregnant woman's life or health is at risk, or in the cases of a fatal foetal abnormality. Abortion services commenced on 1 January 2019, following its legalisation by the aforementioned Act, which became law on 20 December 2018. Previously, the 8th Constitutional Amendment had given the life of the unborn foetus the same value as that of its mother, but the 36th constitutional amendment, approved by referendum in May 2018, replaced this with a clause permitting the Oireachtas (parliament) to legislate for the termination of pregnancies.
Late termination of pregnancy describes the termination of pregnancy by induced abortion during a late stage of gestation. "Late", in this context, is not precisely defined, and different medical publications use varying gestational age thresholds. In 2015 in the United States, about 1.3% of abortions took place after the 21st week, and less than 1% occur after 24 weeks.
Abortion in New Zealand is legal within the framework of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020, which permits the termination of pregnancy for up to birth and removed abortion from the Crimes Act 1961. After 20 weeks, abortion is permitted only if a health practitioner deems it "clinically appropriate" and consults at least one other health practitioner. Abortion is illegal only if a person who is not a licensed health practitioner procures or performs it. In March 2022, New Zealand implemented explicit "safe access zones" by legislation around abortion clinics and/or hospitals.
Abortion laws vary widely among countries and territories, and have changed over time. Such laws range from abortion being freely available on request, to regulation or restrictions of various kinds, to outright prohibition in all circumstances. Many countries and territories that allow abortion have gestational limits for the procedure depending on the reason; with the majority being up to 12 weeks for abortion on request, up to 24 weeks for rape, incest, or socioeconomic reasons, and more for fetal impairment or risk to the woman's health or life. As of 2022, countries that legally allow abortion on request or for socioeconomic reasons comprise about 60% of the world's population.
Abortion in Australia is legal. It has been fully decriminalised in all jurisdictions, starting with Western Australia in 1998 and lastly in South Australia in 2021. Access to abortion varies between the states and territories: surgical abortions are readily available on request within the first 16 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, although with no limit on gestational term in the Australian Capital Territory. Later term abortions generally require the approval of two doctors, though are heavily restricted in Western Australia after 20 weeks.
Abortion in Sweden was first legislated by the Abortion Act of 1938. This stated that an abortion could be legally performed in Sweden upon medical, humanitarian, or eugenical grounds. That is, if the pregnancy constituted a serious threat to the woman's life, if she had been impregnated by rape, or if there was a considerable chance that any serious condition might be inherited by her child, she could request an abortion. The law was later augmented in 1946 to include socio-medical grounds and again in 1963 to include the risk of serious fetal damage. A committee investigated whether these conditions were met in each individual case and, as a result of this prolonged process, abortion was often not granted until the middle of the second trimester. As such, a new law was created in 1974, stating that the choice of an abortion is entirely up to the woman until the end of the 18th week.
Voice for Life, formerly known as the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC), is a New Zealand pro-life advocacy group. Besides opposing abortion, Voice for Life has also lobbied against infanticide, embryonic stem cell research, cloning and euthanasia. In recent years, it has strongly campaigned against the decriminalisation of euthanasia in New Zealand as well as abortion, but was unsuccessful in preventing the decriminalisation of either in 2020.
Abortion in India has been legal under various circumstances for the last 50 years with the introduction of Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act in 1971. The Act was amended in 2003 to enable women's accessibility to safe and legal abortion services.
Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977, also known as the CS&A Act 1977, is an Act of Parliament in New Zealand. It was passed shortly following an inquiry by the Royal Commission on Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion. The legislation established the legal framework for abortion in New Zealand; with abortions being allowed provided the procedure was approved by two certifying consultants and that the circumstances met the criteria of the Crimes Act 1961. In March 2020, several of its provisions were amended by the Abortion Legislation Act 2020, which eased access to abortion and eliminated most of the criteria established by the Crimes Act 1961.
Abortion in Zimbabwe is available under limited circumstances. Zimbabwe's current abortion law, the Termination of Pregnancy Act, was enacted by Rhodesia's white minority government in 1977. The law permits abortion if the pregnancy endangers the life of the woman or threatens to permanently impair her physical health, if the child may be born with serious physical or mental defects, or if the fetus was conceived as a result of rape or incest. Nevertheless, an estimated 70,000+ illegal abortions are performed in Zimbabwe each year, resulting in around 20,000 maternal deaths.
The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 was an Act of the Oireachtas which, until 2018, defined the circumstances and processes within which abortion in Ireland could be legally performed. The act gave effect in statutory law to the terms of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the 1992 judgment Attorney General v. X. That judgment allowed for abortion where pregnancy endangers a woman's life, including through a risk of suicide. The provisions relating to suicide had been the most contentious part of the bill. Having passed both Houses of the Oireachtas in July 2013, it was signed into law on 30 July by Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, and commenced on 1 January 2014. The 2013 Act was repealed by the Health Act 2018, which commenced on 1 January 2019.
Abortion in Azerbaijan is legal on request up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, and in specific circumstances between 12 and 28 weeks. The current abortion law of Azerbaijan is based on the abortion law of the Soviet Union of 1955 when Azerbaijan was a Republic of the Soviet Union, and no changes were made after Azerbaijan became independent in 1991. Between 1965 and 1987 the abortion rate used to be very high. Since independence, the abortion rate has almost halved and relatively stabilized after 2000. In the 2014, 13.8% of pregnancies in Azerbaijan ended in abortion, a slight rise from the all-time low recorded in 2005 (12.1%).
D v Ireland is a case of the European Court of Human Rights concerning abortion in Ireland. It refers to the court case itself, and the circumstances surrounding abortion for fatal foetal abnormalities in Ireland. In 2002 Deirdre Conroy discovered her pregnancy was non-viable and had a termination in Northern Ireland. A public letter, written using a pseudonym, asking for it to be legal was credited with influencing the 2002 abortion referendum. She lost a court case in the ECHR in 2006 because she had not exhausted all domestic remedies. In 2013 after the death of Savita Halappanavar, she came forward, revealed her identity and again asked for this sort of termination to be legal.
Mellet v Ireland is a finding from the United Nations Human Rights Committee that the Republic of Ireland's abortion laws violated human rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by banning abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality and by forcing her to travel to the United Kingdom for an abortion.
Abortion in Egypt is prohibited by Articles 260–264 of the Penal Code of 1937. However, under Article 61 of the Penal Code, exceptions may be granted in cases of necessity, which has typically been interpreted to permit an abortion necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman. In some cases, this exception has been extended to cases where the pregnancy poses dangers to the pregnant woman's health, and to cases of foetal impairment. A physician can only perform an abortion in such cases when two specialists approve, unless the woman's life is in imminent danger.
Abortion in Barbados is legal when performed to save the life of the woman, to preserve her physical or mental health, in cases of foetal impairment, when the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, and for economic or social reasons. In 1983, Babardos passed the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, and abortion was made legal, other than upon request without a physician's oversight. Prior to 12 weeks gestation, the woman must get approval from a physician to receive abortion care. Between 12 and 20 weeks, two physicians must approve, and three are required after 20 weeks. Before getting the medical procedure, the woman is required to receive counseling. A medical practitioner must perform the abortion services, and after 12 weeks, they must do so in a government-approved hospital.
The Health Act 2018 is an Act of the Oireachtas which defines the circumstances and processes within which abortion may be legally performed in Ireland. It permits termination under medical supervision, generally up to 12 weeks' gestation, and later if pregnancy poses a serious health risk or there is a fatal foetal abnormality.
Abortion in Malaysia is mostly illegal except in cases when a medical practitioner deems that continuing the pregnancy poses a danger to the mother's life, physical health, and mental well-being. Abortion in Malaysia is regulated under Sections 312–316 of the Penal Code. Access to abortion has been hampered by religious, cultural, and social stigmas against abortion, poor awareness of abortion legislation among health professionals, and the high cost of abortion services in the private health sector.
References
- 1 2 "Abortions, year ended December 2004: Technical notes". Statistics New Zealand. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 30 December 2008.
- ↑ "Abortion laws by grounds on which abortion is permitted". UNdata . United Nations Statistics Division. 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
