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Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Things that may play a role on family planning decisions include marital situation, career or work considerations, financial situations. If sexually active, family planning may involve the use of contraception and other techniques to control the timing of reproduction.
Zika fever, also known as Zika virus disease or simply Zika, is an infectious disease caused by the Zika virus. Most cases have no symptoms, but when present they are usually mild and can resemble dengue fever. Symptoms may include fever, red eyes, joint pain, headache, and a maculopapular rash. Symptoms generally last less than seven days. It has not caused any reported deaths during the initial infection. Mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy can cause microcephaly and other brain malformations in some babies. Infections in adults have been linked to Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS).
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).
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only became available in the 20th century. Planning, making available, and using birth control is called family planning. Some cultures limit or discourage access to birth control because they consider it to be morally, religiously, or politically undesirable.
Abortion in Guyana is legal during the first eight weeks of pregnancy, but it is illegal after eight weeks except in cases of endangering the maternal or fetal health. Throughout much of the 20th century, it was officially illegal but rarely were laws against abortion ever enforced. In 1995, legislation was passed which made abortion legal as long as it was done within the first 8 weeks of pregnancy and done with the consent of the pregnant woman and by a licensed medical practitioner.
Abortion in Venezuela is currently illegal except in some specific cases outlined in the Venezuelan Constitution, and the country has one of Latin America's most restrictive laws.
Birth control in the United States is available in many forms. Some of the forms available at drugstores and some retail stores are male condoms, female condoms, sponges, spermicides, and over-the-counter emergency contraception. Forms available at pharmacies with a doctor's prescription or at doctor's offices are oral contraceptive pills, patches, vaginal rings, diaphragms, shots/injections, cervical caps, implantable rods, and intrauterine devices (IUDs). Sterilization procedures, including tubal ligations and vasectomies, are also performed.
The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) is an Irish charity working to enable people to make informed choices about sexuality and reproduction. The organisation promotes the right of all people to sexual and reproductive health information as well as dedicated, confidential and affordable healthcare services.
Abortion in Kazakhstan is legal as an elective procedure up to 12 weeks, and special circumstances afterwards. The relevant legislation is based on the laws inherited from the country's Soviet past, when abortion was legally permitted as a contraceptive.
An epidemic of Zika fever, caused by Zika virus, began in Brazil and affected other countries in the Americas from April 2015 to November 2016. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of the epidemic in November 2016, but noted that the virus still represents "a highly significant and long term problem". It is estimated that 1.5 million people were infected by Zika virus in Brazil, with over 3,500 cases of infant microcephaly reported between October 2015 and January 2016. The epidemic also affected other parts of South and North America, as well as several islands in the Pacific.
Abortion in Guatemala is illegal, except when needed to save the woman's life. Abortion was illegal without exception prior to 1973. Congressional Decree 17-73 altered the penal code to allow abortion in cases in which the pregnant woman's life is endangered in September 1973. The procedure must be done by a physician and approved by a second doctor.
Abortion in Missouri is illegal except in cases of medical emergency. In 2014, a poll by the Pew Research Center found that 52% of Missouri adults said that abortion should be legal vs. 46% that believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. According to a 2014 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) study, 51% of white women in the state believed that abortion is legal in all or most cases.
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.
Abortion in Massachusetts is legal up to at least the 24th week of pregnancy, with exceptions allowing later termination of pregnancies in some circumstances. Modern Massachusetts is considered one of the most pro-choice states in the country: a PEW research poll finding that 74% of residents supported the right to an abortion in all or most cases, a higher percentage than any other state. Marches supporting abortion rights took place as part of the #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.
Abortion in Michigan is legal until fetal viability. A state constitutional amendment to explicitly guarantee abortion rights was placed on the ballot in 2022 as Michigan Proposal 22–3; it passed by 57 percent, adding the right to abortion and contraceptive use to the Michigan Constitution. The amendment largely prevents the regulation of abortion before fetal viability, unless said regulations are to protect the individual seeking abortion care, and it also makes it unconstitutional to make laws restricting abortions which would protect the life and health, physical and/or mental, of the pregnant individual seeking abortion.
Abortion, also known as pregnancy termination, was legalized up to the 24th week of pregnancy in New York (NY) in 1970, three years before it was decriminalized for the entire United States with the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973, though Roe v. Wade was later overturned by the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The Reproductive Health Act, passed in 2019 in New York, further allows abortions past the 24th week of pregnancy if a woman's life or health is at risk or if the fetus is not viable.
Abortion in Rhode Island is legal. On June 19, 2019, the legal right to abortion was codified into Rhode Island law by passage of the Reproductive Privacy Act, which 71% of the Rhode Islanders who answered a poll supported.
Abortion in Maryland is legal up to the point of fetal viability. 64% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal and 33% said that it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Abortion in America Samoa is legal but has so many restrictions it is effectively illegal. These laws were passed in the 1980s. When the Zika virus hit in 2015 and 2016, women could not get abortions unless they had enough money to fly to Hawaii. In 2018, abortion pills were not available but the morning after pill was.
Abortion in Puerto Rico is legal throughout pregnancy. On June 22, 2022, the Senate passed a bill limiting abortion to 22 weeks, with exceptions for danger to the mother's life, fetal defects, and if the fetus would not be viable. The bill will need to be considered by the House.
References
- ↑ Abortion, 2019 US Virgin Islands Code, Title 14 § 151.
- ↑ Worrell, Marc. "U.S. Virgin Islands (Saint Croix, Saint John, Saint Thomas)". Women on Waves (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-05-29.
- ↑ "In the Caribbean, crossing borders by land and sea for safe abortions". Reuters. 2016-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
- ↑ Gani, Aisha (2016-01-29). "Zika virus: the options facing pregnant women across Latin America". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-05-29.
- ↑ "Public Funding for Contraceptive, Sterilization and Abortion Services, 1994". Guttmacher Institute. 2008-04-24. Retrieved 2019-05-23.
