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The United States abortion-rights movement is a sociopolitical movement in the United States supporting the view that a woman should have the legal right to an elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy, and is part of a broader global abortion-rights movement. The movement consists of a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body.
Henekh "Henry" Morgentaler, was a Polish-born Canadian physician and abortion rights advocate who fought numerous legal battles aimed at expanding abortion rights in Canada. As a Jewish youth during World War II, Morgentaler was imprisoned at the Łódź Ghetto and later at the Dachau concentration camp.
Abortion in Canada is legal througout pregnancy, and is publicly funded as a medical procedure under the combined effects of the federal Canada Health Act and provincial health-care systems. However, access to services and resources varies by region. While some restrictions exist, Canada is one of the few nations with no criminal restrictions on abortion. Abortion is subject to provincial healthcare regulatory rules and guidelines for physicians. No provinces offer abortion on request at 24 weeks and beyond, although there are exceptions for certain medical complications.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive and sexual healthcare, and sexual education in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3) and a member association of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Abortion in Australia is legal nationwide. There are no federal abortion laws, and it has been fully decriminalised in all jurisdictions, starting with Western Australia in 1998 and lastly in South Australia in 2022. Access to abortion varies between the states and territories: surgical abortions are readily available on request within the first 20 to 24 weeks of pregnancy in most jurisdictions, and up to 16 weeks in Tasmania. Later term abortions in most states and territories can be obtained with the approval of two doctors. The exceptions are Western Australia, where abortion is heavily restricted after 20 weeks, and the Australian Capital Territory, where there is no limit on gestational term for approval by a single doctor.
An abortion clinic or abortion provider is a medical facility that provides abortions. Such clinics may be public medical centers, private medical practices or nonprofit organizations such as Planned Parenthood.
A crisis pregnancy center (CPC), sometimes called a pregnancy resource center (PRC) or a pro-life pregnancy center, is a type of nonprofit organization established by anti-abortion groups primarily to persuade pregnant women against having an abortion. In the United States, CPCs that qualify as medical clinics may also provide pregnancy testing, sonograms, and other services, while many others operate without medical licensing under varying degrees of regulation. CPCs have frequently been found to disseminate false medical information about the supposed physical and mental health risks of abortion, and sometimes promulgate misinformation about the effectiveness of condoms and prevention of sexually transmitted infections. CPCs are sometimes referred to as fake abortion clinics by scholars, the media, and supporters of abortion rights, due to deceptive advertising practices that obscure the anti-abortion agenda of CPCs from potential patients seeking abortions.
Anti-abortion violence is a kind of violence committed against individuals and organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion counseling. Incidents of violence have included destruction of property, including vandalism; crimes against people, including kidnapping, stalking, assault, attempted murder, and murder; and crimes affecting both people and property, as well as arson and terrorism, such as bombings.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act is a United States law that was signed by President Bill Clinton in May 1994, which prohibits the following three things: (1) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is obtaining an abortion, (2) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is exercising or trying to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship, (3) the intentional damage or destruction of a reproductive health care facility or a place of worship.
The Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand (ALRANZ) is New Zealand's national abortion-rights advocacy group in existence since 1971. Since the decriminalisation of abortion in 2020, the organisation continues to monitor and lobby for changes to the law. The organisation is based in Wellington, publishes a quarterly newsletter, and has its own web site.
The Pro-Choice Action Network (Pro-CAN) is a Canadian abortion rights advocacy group based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1987 as the BC Coalition for Abortion Clinics, the group changed to its current name in 1998. It began publishing a quarterly newsletter, The Pro-Choice Press, in 1995. Pro-CAN is the largest and longest-established abortion rights organization in British Columbia. In November 1988, it successfully opened Everywoman's Health Centre. Groups including women's health groups, the labour movement, the United Church, student groups, and health care professionals supported Pro-CAN's initiative to open Everywoman's Health Centre. This opening is of notable importance because at that time, it was illegal for free-standing clinics to offer abortion services. The group stopped its activities in 2009, except for its website, and now refers to the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.
Governments sometimes take measures designed to afford legal protection of access to abortion. Such legislation often seeks to guard facilities which provide induced abortion against obstruction, vandalism, picketing, and other actions, or to protect patients and employees of such facilities from threats and harassment.
40 Days for Life is an international organization that campaigns against abortion in more than 60 nations worldwide. It was originally started in 2004 by members of the Brazos Valley Coalition for Life in Texas. The name refers to a repeated pattern of events lasting for 40 days in the Bible, such as Noah’s Ark, Moses’s 40 days on Mount Sinai, and Jesus’s 40 days in the desert.
Abby Johnson is an American anti-abortion activist who previously worked at Planned Parenthood as a clinic director, but resigned in October 2009. She states that she resigned after watching an abortion on ultrasound. The veracity of her account and the details and motivation for her conversion have been challenged by investigative reporters, as medical records contradict some of her claims.
The Prince Edward Island Reproductive Rights Organization (PRRO) is a special interest group advocating to have abortions performed in Prince Edward Island (PEI). To date, PEI is the only Canadian province that does not perform surgical abortions on its own soil. Abortions are provided by the PEI health care system at a nearby Halifax medical center. PRRO was founded by students of a local college.
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionistmovements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in response to the legalization of elective abortions.
Abortion in Alaska is legal at all stages of pregnancy, as long as a licensed physician performs the procedure. As of 2016, Alaska does not require a minor to notify a parent or guardian in order to obtain an abortion. 63% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Alaska was one of only four states to make abortion legal between 1967 and 1970, a few years before the US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling. Alaska had consent requirements for women seeking abortions by 2007 that required abortion providers to warn patients of a link between abortion and breast cancer despite it being scientifically unsupported.
Elective abortions in Wisconsin are under dispute after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 24, 2022. Abortion opponents cite an 1849 law that they claim bans the procedure in all cases except when the life of the mother is in danger. However, lower level courts have argued that the law only applies to infanticide and not consensual abortions. The enforceability of the law is disputed and being considered by the state courts. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced that they would resume abortion services in Madison and Milwaukee on September 18, 2023.
Abortion in California is legal up to the point of fetal viability. An abortion ban was in place by 1900, and by 1950, it was a criminal offense for a woman to have an abortion. In 1962, the American Law Institute published their model penal code as it applied to abortions, with three circumstances where they believed a physician could justifiably perform an abortion, and California adopted a version of this code. In 2002, California passed a law guaranteeing women the right to have an abortion "prior to viability of the fetus, or when the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman." In 2022, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, which amended the Constitution of California to explicitly protect the right to abortion and contraception by a margin of 33.76%.
Abortion in Maryland is legal up to the point of fetal viability and later when necessary to preserve the life or health of the pregnant woman. The first laws regulating abortion in the state were passed in 1867 and 1868, banning abortion except by a physician to "secure the safety of the mother." Abortion providers continued to operate both within and outside of the law. Legal enforcement became more strict from the 1940s through 60s, with numerous police raids on abortion providers. In 1968, Maryland passed a liberalized abortion law that clarified the wording of the previous law, allowing abortion in hospital settings in cases of rape, severe fetal deformity, or when life and health were endangered.
References
- ↑ Arthur, Joyce. "About Us". Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
- ↑ Arthur, Joyce. "The Case for Repealing Anti-Abortion Laws" (PDF). Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada website. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
- ↑ Wu, F.; Arthur, J. "A Survey of Anti-Choice Protesting Activity at Canadian Abortion Clinics" (PDF). Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada website. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
- ↑ Arthur, Joyce. "List of Abortion Clinics in Canada (and some hospitals)". Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. Retrieved 2020-10-16. PDF
