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Abortion in Finland will be legal and free of charge upon request in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy starting from 1 September 2023. Between 1970 and 2023 abortion was widely accessible in practice for a variety of reasons but nevertheless the law required the pregnant woman to state her motivations and get approval from one or two doctors.
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 Germany is illegal, but not punishable during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy under the condition of mandatory counseling, and it is permitted 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 rape it is legal in the first 12 weeks without mandatory counseling. Otherwise in the illegal, but not punishable case, 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. Abortions that do not meet these conditions are punishable.
Abortion in Chile is legal in the following cases: when the mother's life is at risk, when the fetus will not survive the pregnancy, and during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in the case of rape. Between 1989 and 2017, Chile had one of the most restrictive abortion policies in the world, criminalizing its practice without exception.
Abortion in Brazil is a crime, with penalties of 1 to 3 years of imprisonment for the pregnant woman, and 1 to 4 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 woman'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.
Elective Abortion in Argentina is legal in the first 14 weeks of gestation. The abortion law was liberalized after the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill (Argentina) 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 four other Latin or South American countries have legalised abortion on request: Cuba in 1965, Guyana in 1995, Uruguay in 2012 and Colombia in 2022. According to polling in 2021, around 44% of Argentinians support the legalization of abortion on request; other polls showed 50–60% of Argentinians opposed the bill.
Timeline of women's legal rights represents formal changes and reforms regarding women's rights. The changes include actual law reforms as well as other formal changes, such as 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.
Since 2021, abortion is no longer a crime in Mexico, although its legalisation varies by state. On 7 September 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court unanimously ruled that penalising abortion is unconstitutional, setting an important precedent across the whole country. Before 2019, abortion had been severely restricted outside of Mexico City, where it was legalized on-request in 2007. As of June 2022, abortion is available on request to any woman during the first twelve weeks of a pregnancy in Mexico City and the states of Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Coahuila, Colima, Baja California, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Baja California Sur and Quintana Roo. However, even in states where abortion is legal, there continue to be women in pre-trial detention for murder due to the spontaneous miscarriage of a pregnancy induced by rape.
Abortion in Uruguay is legal on request before twelve weeks of gestation, after a five-day reflection period. Abortion has been legalized in Uruguay since 2012. Uruguay is one of only four countries in South America where abortion is legal on request; the other three are Argentina, Guyana and Colombia.
Abortion in Paraguay is illegal except in case of the threat to the life of the woman. Anyone who performs an abortion can be sentenced to 15 to 30 months in prison. If the abortion is done without the consent of the woman, the punishment is increased to 2 to 5 years. If the death of the woman occurred as a result of the abortion, the person who did the procedure can be sentenced to 4 to 6 years in prison, and 5 to 10 years in cases in which she did not consent.
Abortion in Colombia is legal on request for any reason and without restrictions 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 mother, fetal malformation, or rape, according to a Constitutional Court ruling in 2006.
The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy with few exceptions, others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while others allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counseling requirements. Abortion laws tend to be the most strict in the Southern United States and the most lenient in the Northeastern and Western United States.
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.
Abortion in Liechtenstein is illegal in most circumstances and is punishable by prison terms for the woman and the physician. An attempt to legalize it in 2011 was defeated by voters. In April and November 2012, the Landtag failed to advance proposals to relax abortion laws.
Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pregnancy without fear of legal or social backlash. These movements are in direct opposition to anti-abortion movements.
Abortion in Angola is only legal if the abortion will save the woman's life or health and in case of rape or fetal impairments. Any abortion performed under different conditions subjects the woman and the person who performs the procedure to up to five years in prison. If the woman dies as a result of the abortion or if the practitioner performs abortions on a routine basis, the criminal charges are increased by one-third.
Abortion in South Korea was decriminalized, effective 2021, by a 2019 order of the Constitutional Court of Korea.
The Termination of Pregnancy Act is a law in Zimbabwe governing abortion. Enacted in 1977 by the Parliament of Rhodesia and effective starting 1 January 1978, it was retained after Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. The law expanded abortion access, permitting it under three circumstances: 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.
Abortion in Colorado is legal at all stages of pregnancy. It is one of six states without any term restrictions as to when a pregnancy can be terminated.
Despite a wide variation in the restrictions under which it is permitted, abortion is legal in most European countries. 95% of European women of reproductive age live in countries which allow elective abortions or for broad socioeconomic reasons. The exceptions are Malta, Vatican City, Liechtenstein, Andorra, and Poland, where abortion is illegal or severely restricted. The other state with existent, but less severe restrictions is Monaco. Abortion was also banned in San Marino, but a referendum on 26 September 2021 legalised abortion for women up until the twelfth week of pregnancy.
References
- ↑ "Ecuador: Abortion Law". Women on Waves. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
- ↑ "Ecuador's top court decriminalises abortion in rape cases". France 24. 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
- ↑ "Ecuador abortion: President Correa threatens to resign". BBC News. 2013-10-11. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
- 1 2 "Ecuador: Adopt UN Recommendations on Abortion Law". Human Rights Watch. 2015-04-22. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
