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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. In 2024, France became the first country to explicitly protect abortion rights in its constitution.
Abortion in Germany is legal on demand during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy upon condition of mandatory counseling. The same goes later in pregnancy in cases that the pregnancy poses an important danger to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. In the case that the abortion is because of a rape, counseling is not mandatory. The woman needs to receive counseling, called Schwangerschaftskonfliktberatung, at least three days prior to the abortion and must take place at a state-approved centre, which afterwards gives the applicant a Beratungsschein.
Abortion in Brazil is a crime, with penalties of one to three years of imprisonment for the recipient of the abortion, and one to four years of imprisonment for the doctor or any other person who performs the abortion on someone else. In three specific situations in Brazil, induced abortion is not punishable by law: in cases of risk to the pregnant person's life; when the pregnancy is the result of rape; and if the fetus is anencephalic. In these cases, the Brazilian government provides the abortion procedure free of charge through the Sistema Único de Saúde. This does not mean that the law regards abortion in these cases as a right, but only that women who receive abortions under these circumstances, and the doctors, will not be punished. The punishment for a woman who performs an abortion on herself or consents to an abortion performed by another outside these legal exceptions is one to three years of detention. The base penalty for a third party that performs an illegal abortion with the consent of the patient, ranges from one to four years of detention, with the possibility of increase by a third if the woman comes to any physical harm, and can be doubled if she dies. Criminal penalties fixed at four years or less can be converted to non-incarceration punishments, such as community service and compulsory donation to charity.
Abortion in Argentina is legal as an elective medical procedure during the first 14 weeks from conception. The abortion law was liberalized when the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill was passed by the National Congress in December 2020. According to the law, any woman can request the procedure at any public or private health facility. Doctors are legally bound to either perform it or, if they are conscientious objectors, refer the patient to another physician or health facility. Only three other Latin or South American countries legalised abortion on request nationwide before Argentina did: Cuba in 1965, Guyana in 1995, and Uruguay in 2012. According to polling in 2021, around 44% of Argentines support the legalization of abortion on request; other polls showed 50–60% of Argentines opposed the bill.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Angola have seen improvements in the early 21st century. In November 2020, the National Assembly approved a new penal code, which legalised consenting same-sex sexual activity. Additionally, employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been banned, making Angola one of the few African countries to have such protections for LGBT people.
Abortion in Israel is permitted when determined by a termination committee, with the vast majority of cases being approved, as of 2019. The rate of abortion in Israel has steadily declined since 1988, and compared to the rest of the world, abortion rates in Israel are moderate. According to government data, in Israel, abortion rates in 2016 dropped steadily to 9 per 1,000 women of childbearing age, lower than England (16.2) and the United States (13.2). 99% of abortions are carried out in the first trimester. Despite allegations of permitting abortion under limited circumstances, Haaretz noted in 2019 that this is not the case, and abortion is almost always permitted in Israel.
The timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting) represents formal changes and reforms regarding women's rights. The changes include actual law reforms, as well as other formal changes (e.g. reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents). The right to vote is exempted from the timeline: for that right, see Timeline of women's suffrage. The timeline excludes ideological changes and events within feminism and antifeminism; for that, see Timeline of feminism.
This is a timeline of reproductive rights legislation, a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health. These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization, abortion, and contraception, and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Abortion in Ecuador is illegal except when performed in the case of a threat to the life or health of a pregnant woman or when the pregnancy is the result of rape, including but not only a sexual crime against a mentally disabled woman where her legal representative has consented to the abortion. In 2021, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador ruled for the decriminalization of abortion in all cases of rape.
Abortion in Bolivia is illegal, except in the cases of rape, incest, or to protect the woman's health. This policy forms part of the Penal Code laid down in 1973, and has been in force since then. Due to the difficulty of receiving abortions—even if the abortion does fall under one of the exceptions to the law, judicial permission needs to be secured, which can take a very long time—many pregnant women end up having unsafe, clandestine abortions instead. According to the Bolivian Ministry of Health, almost all of the 67,000 abortions performed in Bolivia in 2011 were clandestine, with approximately half of the women who received them needing hospital care afterwards. This practice has been linked to the high maternal mortality rates in the country.
Abortion in Colombia is freely available on request up to the 24th week of pregnancy, due to a ruling by the Constitutional Court on February 21, 2022. Later in pregnancy, it is only allowed in cases of risk of death to the pregnant woman, fetal malformation, or rape, according to a Constitutional Court ruling in 2006.
Abortion laws in Portugal were liberalized on April 10, 2007, allowing an elective abortion to be provided if a woman's pregnancy has not exceeded its tenth week. There is a three-day waiting period for abortions. President Aníbal Cavaco Silva ratified the law allowing abortion, recommending nevertheless that measures should be taken to ensure abortion is the last resort. Despite the liberalization of the laws, as of a 2011 survey, many doctors were refusing to perform abortions – which they are allowed to do under a conscientious objection clause. Abortions at later stages are allowed for specific reasons, such as risk to woman's health reasons, rape and other sexual crimes, or fetal malformation; with restrictions increasing gradually at 12, 16 and 24 weeks.
Foeticide, or feticide, is the act of killing a fetus, or causing a miscarriage. Definitions differ between legal and medical applications, whereas in law, feticide frequently refers to a criminal offense, in medicine the term generally refers to a part of an abortion procedure in which a provider intentionally induces fetal demise to avoid the chance of an unintended live birth, or as a standalone procedure in the case of selective reduction.
Abortion in San Marino is legal in the first 12 weeks of gestation for any reason. It is also legal until fetal viability if the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman's life, if the fetus has an anomaly that poses a risk to the woman's health, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. In case of risk to the woman's life after fetal viability, the pregnancy may also be interrupted by attempting a live birth.
Abortion in Thailand is legal and available on-request up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion has been legal up to at least 12 weeks of pregnancy since 7 February 2021. Following a 2020 ruling of the Constitutional Court which declared a portion of the abortion statutes unconstitutional, the Parliament removed first-term abortion from the criminal code. Once strict, over time laws have been relaxed to take into account high rates of teen pregnancy, women who lack the means or will to raise children, and the consequences of illegal abortion.
João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço is an Angolan politician who has served as the 3rd president of Angola since 26 September 2017. Previously, he was Minister of Defence from 2014 to 2017. In September 2018, he became the Chairman of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the ruling party. He was the party's Secretary-General from 1998 to 2003.
Abortion in South Korea was decriminalized, effective 1 January 2021, by a 2019 order of the Constitutional Court of Korea. It is currently legal throughout pregnancy, as no new law has been enacted. Thus there are no gestational limits or other restrictions.
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, Barbados 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 obtain an abortion. 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.
Communist and Marxist ideologies generally allow state-provided abortion, although there is no consensus among Communist parties and governments about how far into the pregnancy abortion should be allowed.
Abortion in Ohio is legal up to the point of fetal viability as a result of abortion rights being placed into the Ohio State Constitution by November 2023 Ohio Issue 1.
References
- ↑ "United Nations World Abortion Policies 2013" (PDF).
- ↑ "Angola decriminalizes same-sex relations, allows abortion in certain cases". Agencia EFE. 2019-01-24. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
- ↑ "New Penal Code Makes History in João Lourenço's Era". Agencia Angola Press. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
- ↑ "Diario da Republica" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
