Abortion Policies across the globe
Abortion law has become a hot topic across the world, and different people have a different opinions on the same.
It is very common to place limits on when abortions are allowed, generally around gestational time limits. Check out some of the abortion policies in countries around the world.
As a result of the US Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v Wade ruling, which enshrined a legal right to an abortion, the United States is now one of a few dozen countries that severely restrict access to the procedure.
The Supreme Court ruled Friday night that individual states can now decide whether to permit or restrict abortions. Currently, abortion is illegal or heavily restricted in at least 11 states in the United States. Around 12 states already have laws that allow state authorities to ban or restrict access to the procedure, according to an NPR report.
Around the world, abortion is either prohibited completely or subject to certain restrictions. Sometimes limits are placed on when abortions can be performed, generally around the gestational time frame. Knowing about some of abortion policies that are followed across the globe.
But when it comes to India, abortion has another phase. Medical termination of pregnancy is permitted in India until 20 weeks of pregnancy under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971. As of 2021, the limit for abortions was raised to 24 weeks for special bracket of pregnant women, that includes incest srvivors or rape victims, with the approval of two doctors.
According to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, in India, termination of pregnancy is permitted until 20 weeks of pregnancy. In 2021, the abortion limit was raised to 24 weeks for special categories of pregnant women, such as survivors of rape or incest, with the approval of two doctors.
As per the global advocacy group Center for Reproductive Rights, abortion is illegal in 24 countries, where 90 million or five percent of women of reproductive age live. Senegal, Mauritania, and Egypt are among them in Africa and, Phillipines and Laos in Asia, Honduras and El Salvador in Central America, and Poland and Malta in Europe.
A woman can be imprisoned for getting an abortion in some of these countries due to their hardline laws. Women who have undergone abortions in El Salvador, for example, have been found guilty of “exasperate homicide,” that also includes the cases of stillbirth.
When it comes to the European Union Malta is the only country that prohibits abortions under any circumstances. In the past year, the country witnessed a massive pro-choice movement calling for the reverse of the country’s centuries-old abortion laws. In the year 2021, Poland had introduced a near-total ban on abortions, allowing them only to be only performed in cases of rape, incest, or to save a mother’s life.
In the last three decades, the number of unintended pregnancies in Africa has decreased by about 15 percent, while abortions have increased by about 13 percent, according to Guttmacher Institute data. A number of African nations have either banned abortions altogether or severely restricted them. Only in cases of life-threatening situations is the procedure permitted in Nigeria. In countries like Bostwana and Zimbabwe, abortion is allowed in cases of incest, foetal defects, and rape.
More than 50 countries, including Libya, Indonesia, Nigeria, Iran, and Venezuela, allow abortions if a woman’s health is at risk. It is allowed in cases of rape, incest, or foetal abnormality in several other countries. In Brazil, abortion is only permitted in cases of rape or foetal disability. Approval from one doctor and three clinical experts is required in such cases. According to a health ministry regulation in 2020, doctors must report to the police anyone seeking an abortion after being raped.
Other than gestational limits, there are few restrictions in Canada, Australia, and most of Europe. Despite the fact that Canada does not have a law granting the right to an abortion, it is still legal for 34 years regardless of the reason for the abortion. A federal law banning abortions was overturned by the country’s Supreme Court in 1998.
As desecrate in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a woman’s right to “life, liberty, and security of the person” was violated by this law.
In most European countries, abortions are permitted within gestational time limits, which are most commonly between 12 and 14 weeks. Nevertheless, there are a variety of exceptions in many countries that allow abortions to take place even later than that. As an example, in the UK, a pregnancy can be terminated right up until birth if the foetus has a disability.
Following widespread protests by pro-choice groups and women’s rights activists, many traditionally conservative Catholic countries in Europe and Latin America have expanded abortion rights.
According to The Washington Post, Colombia’s Constitutional Court voted last year to legalize abortion before 24 weeks of pregnancy after the Causa Justa movement, which is made up of human rights and civil society groups, brought the case to the court. A woman could only obtain an abortion if she had been raped, had a nonviable pregnancy, or if her life was in danger.
In Mexico, the Supreme Court last year struck down a state law that allowed authorities to arrest women for undergoing abortions, even if they had been raped.
An important shift in abortion rights occurred in Ireland in 2018 when the public voted to overturn the country’s restrictive abortion laws. Under the new law, women can opt for abortion within twelve weeks of becoming pregnant. In spite of this, those who facilitate an illegal abortion can still be arrested, with a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
With the lifting of the abortion ban in Northern Ireland in 2019, it became the last remaining British nation to do so.
Abortion became legal in New Zealand in 2020, when the legal period was extended to 20 weeks of pregnancy. It used to take two doctors to approve an abortion, which was only done in very serious cases when there was a serious danger to the woman’s health.
What’s the abortion symbol
The coat hanger is a symbol of the reproductive rights movement and a reminder of the gruesome pre-Roe era. It represents a desperate last resort for women who have been denied access to legal abortion.
Within hours of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, which allowed women to have legal abortions, memes with coat hangers spread across social media. A coat hanger has been used as a symbol and warning for women in America during pro-choice protests.
The term’ coat hanger abortion’ refers to unsafe abortion. As with many other household objects or homemade herbal remedies, it refers to the practice of using the object to induce an abortion in the absence of legal or safe abortion access. To perform the abortion, the hanger’s wire would be inserted into the pregnant woman’s cervix. As macabre or grotesque as it may sound, coat-hanger abortions can endanger lives as well as those performed outside of a hospital setting.
It serves as a symbol of the reproductive rights movement as well as a reminder of the gruesome pre-Roe era. If women have been denied legal abortion services, it represents a desperate last resort. Accordingly, the coat hanger illustrates a situation that many activists and experts warn about. Despite being illegal, abortions continue to occur. As a result, they continue to harm women’s health and bodies while also criminalizing them.
An inexpensive and easily accessible coat hanger is usually fashioned with wires. Because of this, it can be widely used as a protest symbol quickly and easily. In April 1969, just a few years before Roe v Wade, 3 lakh protesters marched in Washington with coat hangers around their necks. Additionally, they held signs that read: “Never Again.”
In 2016, protesters in Ohio decorated the statehouse fence with coat hangers to oppose the Heartbeat Bill, which would outlaw abortion once a heartbeat could be heard – at six weeks, before most people realize they are pregnant – even though Roe v Wade permitted it up until viability.
In May, a college student ordered six wire hangers on Amazon and shipped them to the Supreme Court. Her viral TikTok post encouraged others to follow suit. A college student ordered six wire hangers on Amazon and shipped them to the Supreme Court in May. As a result of her viral TikTok post, others followed suit.
Conrad was criticizing anti-abortionists with this cartoon captioned: Alternative to Roe vs. Wade. Conrad criticized then US President George HW Bush by depicting him holding a gun in one hand and a coat hanger in the other to show his pro-gun and anti-abortion stance.
After the Republican Party approved a platform plank opposing abortion in all cases, Huffington Post used a coat hanger cursor on its website, and Newsweek used one on its homepage in 2012.
When it comes to fighting for reproductive rights, some pro-choice activists and doctors advocate using less sensational imagery. It is believed that coat hangers boost pro-life arguments and dissuade women from seeking abortions by making abortions seem unsafe and violent. Therefore, more empowering imagery is recommended when advocating abortions.
The DC Abortion Fund, a non-profit organization that helps low-income women afford abortion care, used to give out silver coat hanger pendants to its monthly donors. “The coat hanger is a reminder of the suffering of patients who cannot access abortion,” according to the organization’s website. In 2014, conservative media in the US viciously attacked the gift. “I can’t believe that someone would celebrate the destruction of babies (boys, and yes, millions of girls) as a fashion statement for feminists,” wrote Bristol Palin, a reality TV star.
However, coat hangers have been turned into pro-choice jewelry or accessories, such as pendants or badges. Many people even get it tattooed as a reminder of protests for legal abortion rights.
In feminist and political art, abortion has also been an important theme. There are parallels between it and the idea of fertility goddesses and mother figures, even if it seems to oppose them. Some find the coat hanger a loaded metaphor. On one side of “The Right to Choose” (2021), a print by Laia Abril and Carmen Winant, is a coat hanger, while on the other side are newspaper obituaries. This law was enacted in response to a Texas law that prohibited most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Earlier this year, a Los Angeles-based guerrilla street artist known as Plastic Jesus placed in pharmacies wire coat hangers labeled “at-home abortion kits.” You can perform an abortion from the convenience of your own home with the kits that come with QR codes. This product is approved for use in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, and Utah. There are plans for further approvals.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
