Abortion given legal boost in 16 countries in last decade

The current issue of the journal “International Family Planning Perspectives” records a worldwide trend toward the legalization of abortion, reports Jonquil Frankham, LifeSiteNews.com.

The journal is published by the Guttmacher Institute, originally a branch of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and lauds this “global trend toward liberalization of abortion policies.” It reports that only two nations, El Salvador and Nicaragua, have made abortion illegal, while 16 have “increased the number of grounds on which abortions may be legally performed.”

“An additional 10 countries maintained their existing grounds for abortion,” the article notes, “but adopted changes that increased access to abortion, including decentralizing the approval of facilities where abortions may be obtained, expanding the types of providers who may perform the procedures and increasing the range of available methods to include medication abortion.”

The authors account for the increasing legalization of abortion by the activity of “human rights” organizations, and refer specifically to the African Union’s (AU) implementation of the Maputo Plan of Action (PoA). The PoA was pushed through the AU by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), despite the fact that AU heads of state never approved the document, as LifeSiteNews.com reported in August 2007.

Several countries in Latin America also loosened their abortion restrictions. “In 2006,” the article says, “Colombia’s constitutional court struck down the country’s blanket prohibition of abortion to permit termination of pregnancy when a woman’s life or health is endangered, as well as in cases of rape, incest or severe fetal impairment. In 2007, Mexico City changed its law to permit abortion without restriction up to 12 weeks’ gestation. Five additional Mexican states also added grounds on which abortion is permitted or not punishable.”

The article says that abortion laws in central and Eastern Europe are “among the most liberal in the world,” but that nations in these areas have increased “procedural and legal barriers” to abortion.

“Though abortion on the grounds of social or demographic characteristics in the second trimester remains legal in Russia, the country defined these indications more narrowly, eliminating, among other grounds for the procedure, having a low income, being unmarried or having too many children.”

In East and South Asia and the Pacific, however, “all changes in the past 10 years … were toward liberalization.” Among these nations, the article reports, are Nepal and Australia. “Nepal’s law was changed to permit abortion on request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and thereafter in cases of rape, incest or fetal impairment or if there is a threat to the woman’s life or physical or mental health. In addition, two territories and one state in Australia liberalized their policies.”

The article concludes that “reproductive rights” are likely to increase throughout the world, and that as nations continue to discover the “negative impact of abortion restrictions on women’s health and wellbeing,” “this trend will be hard to reverse.”

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TAGS: USA legalization of abortion Planned Parenthood abortion laws

[11/02/2008]

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