Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, [1] 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.
In Europe, abortion law varies by country, and has been legalized through parliamentary acts in some countries, and constitutionally banned or heavily restricted in others. In Western Europe this has had the effect at once of both more closely regulating the use of abortion, and at the same time mediating and reducing the impact anti-abortion campaigns have had on the law. [2]
The first specifically anti-abortion organization in France, Laissez-les-vivre-SOS futures mères, was created in 1971 during the debate that was to lead to the Veil Law in 1975. Its main spokesman was the geneticist Jérôme Lejeune. Since 2005, the French anti-abortion movement has organized an annual March for Life. [3]
The 1920 abortion laws of France have not been entirely repealed leading to ambiguity in the nation's policies. [4] By 1975, Simone Veil, the minister for health, introduced legislation that specifically in cases of distress "tolerated" abortion up to ten weeks. [5] Abortions after this date are only cleared by the government if the pregnancy endangers the health of the woman or will result in the birth of a child with a severe and incurable disease. [5] After twelve weeks, abortion, except for "therapeutic abortion, under the terms of Article 317 of the Criminal Code, is a crime, punishable by 6 months to 10 years in prison, a fine of between 1800 and 250,000 Francs, and loss of professional license." [5]
Catholics and right-wing political groups continue to protest abortion. The far-right party National Rally (formerly National Front), has attempted unsuccessfully to decrease funding for abortions. [4]
There are several major anti-abortion groups in the Republic of Ireland, including Pro Life Campaign, Youth Defence and the Iona Institute. The Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (2018) provided for legal abortion in Ireland, but several anti-abortion parties still campaign, including Aontú and the National Party. [6] [7]
In Liechtenstein, an application to legalize abortions was rejected by a slim majority in a referendum in 2011. The opponents, which included Prince Alois, got 500 votes more and eventually settled at 52.3 percent compared with 47.7 percent. [8]
Prince Alois had announced the use of his veto in advance if necessary to prevent the introduction of abortion. [9]
Abortion is legal in Russia as an elective procedure up to the 12th week of pregnancy, and in special circumstances at later stages. [10] The abortion issue gained renewed attention in 2011 in a debate that The New York Times says "has begun to sound like the debate in the United States". [11] Parliament passed and President Dmitri Medvedev signed several restrictions on abortion into law to combat "a falling birthrate" and "plunging population". [11] The restrictions include requiring abortion providers to devote 10% of advertising costs to describing the dangers of abortion to a woman's health and make it illegal to describe abortion as a safe medical procedure. Medvedev's wife Svetlana Medvedeva has taken up the anti-abortion cause in Russia in a weeklong national campaign against abortion called "Give Me Life!" and a "Day of Family, Love and Faithfulness" by her Foundation for Social and Cultural Initiatives in conjunction with the Russian Orthodox Church. [11]
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In Spain, over one million demonstrators took part in a march in Madrid in October 2009 to protest plans by the government of José Luis Zapatero to legalize elective abortions and eliminate parental consent restrictions. [12]
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In the United Kingdom, the most prominent anti-abortion organization is the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. It was formed at the time of the passage of the 1967 Abortion Act which liberalized abortion law. The group campaigns against abortion, often using questionable claims, [13] and supports protests at pregnancy clinics. [14] The Abortion Act of 1967 had a significant effect in Britain (excluding Northern Ireland). The Act states that if at least two doctors deem the reasons for abortion to be in alignment with the Act, it can legally be performed. This still means that the punishment for women who obtain abortions contrary to the Act are faced with potential life imprisonment. Doctors too can be prosecuted if they are found administering abortions without reasonable cause. [15] The Abortion Act of 1967 did not apply in Northern Ireland. Women living there who sought abortions either had to travel to Britain to receive an abortion or potentially face criminal charges for purchasing abortion pills illegally. [15]
To this day, anti-abortion activists routinely stand outside many abortion clinics; their goal is to discourage women from entering the clinics. This is through two processes, known as "prayer vigils", which are sometimes quiet and other times said aloud to actively dissuade; and "pavement counseling", where activists approach women entering clinics in order to persuade them to continue with their pregnancies. This is a practice held in low regard by many, as it causes anxiety and distress. [15]
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In Israel, the major anti-abortion organization is Efrat. [16] Efrat activists primarily raise funds to relieve the "financial and social pressures" on pregnant women so that they will not terminate their pregnancies. However, this activity is only carried out in the Jewish sector in Israeli society, as Efrat officially views abortion among Jews as a demographic threat to the Jewish people. [17]
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In the 19th century United States, Anthony Comstock launched an 'anti-vice crusade' that included opposition to contraception and abortion. He successfully got the US congress to pass laws later known as the Comstock laws that included provisions that made it illegal to send materials used for abortion through the mail. [18] These laws have been referenced by modern anti-abortion campaigners in the US and cited in court cases to stop the mailing of abortion medication. [19]
The United States anti-abortion movement formed as a response to the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton U.S. Supreme Court decisions with many anti-abortion organizations having emerged since then. There is also a smaller consistent life ethic movement, favoring a philosophy which opposes all forms of killing, including abortion, war, euthanasia, and capital punishment.
The current movement is in part a continuation of previous debates on abortion that led to the practice being banned in all states by the late 19th century. The initial movement was led by physicians, but also included politicians and feminists. Among physicians, advances in medical knowledge played a significant role in influencing anti-abortion opinion. Quickening, which had previously been thought to be the point at which the soul entered a human was discovered to be a relatively unimportant step in fetal development, caused many medical professionals to rethink their positions on early term abortions. [20] Ideologically, the Hippocratic Oath and the medical mentality of that age to defend the value of human life as an absolute also played a significant role in molding opinions about abortion. [20]
Meanwhile, many 19th-century feminists tended to regard abortion as an undesirable necessity forced upon women by thoughtless men. [21] The "free love" wing of the feminist movement refused to advocate abortion and treated the practice as an example of the hideous extremes to which modern marriage was driving women. [22] Marital rape and the seduction of unmarried women were societal ills which feminists believed caused the need to abort, as men did not respect women's right to abstinence. [22]
Anti-abortion groups like Students for Life of America and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America are at times associated with conservatism.[ citation needed ] Other groups, such as Focus on the Family, are considered a part of the Christian right. [23] They call themselves "pro-life" because they are often united in their belief that a fetus is a person that has legal rights. Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, some of these organizations have turned their attention to banning abortions at the state and local level and asking the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize fetal personhood under the Constitution. [24]
A Conservative MP, Cathay Wagantall, introduced a bill in 2020 seeking to ban abortions for the purpose of choosing a child's sex. [25] Abortion in Canada is legal at all stages of pregnancy and funded in part by the Canada Health Act. [26] In 2013, the Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, barred the members of Parliament from discussing the matter in the Commons. Harper's move was linked to his repeated declarations that he wouldn't allow the abortion debate to be re-opened. [25] Since the 1980s, at least forty-three private member bills that are against abortion have been sent to the House of Commons yet none of them have been passed. [4] Canadian anti-abortion discourse increasingly "aims at changing cultural values more than legislation; is explicitly framed as 'pro-woman'; largely avoids appealing to religious grounds; and relies on a new 'abortion-harms-women' argument that has supplanted and transformed traditional fetal personhood arguments". [27]
Since 1998, Catholics and allies have held national anti-abortion March for Life rallies at Parliament Hill. [27] [28] Two have gathered over 10,000 protesters. In addition to the national protests, anti-abortionists protest abortion clinics across the nation in attempts to stop abortions from continuing. [27]
A number of anti-abortion organizations exist in Australia, including Cherish Life, Right to Life Australia, and Australian Christian Lobby. These organizations undertake various campaigning activities, including political campaign fundraising. [29]
A large portion of Australian law surrounding abortion was originally derived from the British law. [30] Until 1967, British law stated that "an induced abortion is unlawful in all situations save the (probable) exception of situations where it is necessary to save the life of the mother." [31] Australia partook of this law until Britain changed it in 1967 towards a more liberal standpoint. [31]
All states and territories, except Western Australia, have laws prohibiting anti-abortion campaigners from harassing visitors and staff of abortion clinics by setting exclusion zones around abortion clinics.
In Evangelical Christianity, international organizations like Focus on the Family are involved in the anti-abortion movement. [32]
In 2023, in his book Rethinking Life: Embracing the Sacredness of Every Person, Shane Claiborne, leader of the Red-Letter Christians, calls for expanding the Christian definition of the "pro-life" movement to issues other than the fight against abortion, such as gun violence, poverty, the death penalty and openness to immigration. [33]
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.
In the United States, abortion is a divisive issue in politics and culture wars, though a majority of Americans support access to abortion. Abortion laws vary widely from state to state.
The abortion debate is a longstanding and contentious discourse that touches on the moral, legal, medical, and religious aspects of induced abortion. In English-speaking countries, the debate most visibly polarizes around adherents of the self-described "pro-choice" and "pro-life" movements. Pro-choice supporters uphold that individuals have the right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health, and that they should have the option to end a pregnancy if they choose to do so, taking into account various factors such as the stage of fetal development, the health of the woman, and the circumstances of the conception. Pro-life advocates, on the other hand, maintain that a fetus is a human being with inherent rights that cannot be overridden by the woman's choice or circumstances, and that abortion is morally wrong in most or all cases. Both terms are considered loaded words in mainstream media, where terms such as "abortion rights" or "anti-abortion" are generally preferred.
Feminists for Life of America (FFL) is a non-profit, anti-abortion feminist, non-governmental organization (NGO). Established in 1972, and now based in Alexandria, Virginia, the organization publishes a biannual magazine, The American Feminist, and aims to reach young women, college students in particular.
Anti-abortion feminism is the opposition to abortion by some feminists. Anti-abortion feminists may believe that the principles behind women's rights also call them to oppose abortion on right to life grounds and that abortion hurts women more than it benefits them.
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 not to have an abortion.
The United Statesanti-abortion movement is a movement in the United States that opposes induced abortion and advocates for the protection of fetal life. Advocates support legal prohibition or restriction on ethical, moral, or religious grounds, arguing that human life begins at conception and that the human zygote, embryo or fetus is a person and therefore has a right to life. The anti-abortion movement includes a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body. There are diverse arguments and rationales for the anti-abortion stance. Some allow for some permissible abortions, including therapeutic abortions, in exceptional circumstances such as incest, rape, severe fetal defects, or when the woman's health is at risk.
Right to Life Australia operated as an unincorporated organisation lobbying on consistent life ethic policies such as total opposition to abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Margaret Tighe was the last known President until retiring in 2010 and Toni Turnbull of South Australia was the last known Vice President. While the group states it was a non-denominational Christian organisation, most of those involved identify as Roman Catholics.
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.
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).
Efrat is the largest non-profit organization in Israel dedicated to preventing abortions by Jewish women. Efrat provides emotional, financial, and vocational assistance to pregnant Jewish women who feel pressured to terminate their pregnancy. Efrat supports abortions to save the pregnant woman's life or in cases of severe fetal disability. Until 2021, it was led by Dr. Eli J. Schussheim. The organization operates primarily through volunteer support, providing food, clothing, shelter, and financial assistance to women considering abortion due to financial difficulties.
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.
Abortion is legally accepted in Hungary starting in 1953, with the most recent change to abortion laws being Act LXXIX of 1992 on the protection of fetal life. Under the current laws, abortions may be performed up to 12 weeks but may be extended up to 24 weeks in certain circumstances.
Abortion-rights movements, also self-styled as pro-choice movements, are movements that advocate for 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.
Algeria is the most restrictive country in the region regarding abortion. There are many laws and punishments regarding abortion. If there are posters, publicity, public meetings, or group meetings that have to do with abortion, anyone involved can be punished.
Abortion in Alabama is illegal. Historically, Alabama's abortion laws have evolved from strict regulations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to a period of liberalization following the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide. However, Alabama has consistently enacted legislation aimed at restricting access to abortion.
Abortion in Colorado is legal at all stages of pregnancy. It is one of seven states without any term restrictions as to when a pregnancy can be terminated.
Abortion in Michigan is legal throughout pregnancy. A state constitutional amendment to explicitly guarantee abortion rights was placed on the ballot in 2022 as Michigan Proposal 22–3; it passed with 57 percent of the vote, 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 an abortion, 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 in New York is legal, although abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy require a physician's approval. Abortion was legalized up to the 24th week of pregnancy in New York in 1970, three years before it was legalized for the entire United States with the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Roe v. Wade was later overturned in 2022 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 pregnant individual's life or health is at risk, or if the fetus is not viable. However, since these exceptions are not defined by the law, and the law carries no criminal penalties for the pregnant individual, abortion is effectively legal throughout pregnancy.
...parliamentary decision are sustained by political parties which, in comparison to the United States, are deeply rooted in European society. The political parties have managed to regulate and pacify the political reform process, which in the decision-making stage marginalized opposition outside parliament.
