A child holds up a sign that reads ‘Legal abortion is social justice’ during a rally ahead of International Safe Abortion Day, in Santiago, Chile September 27, 2024. — Reuters pic
Clamping down
Abortion remains banned in around 20 countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America, according to the CRR.
El Salvador adopted a total ban in 1998 — even applying to cases where the woman’s or foetus’s life is in danger — with prison sentences of up to eight years.
Honduras hardened its total ban in 2021 by writing it into its constitution.
In Argentina, President Javier Milei, while running for office in 2023, promised to hold a referendum on banning abortion.
In Europe, only Andorra and the Vatican have total bans. Malta allows abortion only in cases where the mother’s life is in danger or the foetus has no chance of survival.
Poland’s constitutional court sparked protests in 2020 after ruling against abortion in cases where the foetus is malformed.
Abortion in the staunchly Catholic country is only permitted in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is in danger. Recent efforts to liberalise the law there have failed.
Hungary tightened its abortion law in 2022, obliging women contemplating the procedure to observe the foetus’s “vital functions” such as the heartbeat.
In Brazil and Chile, abortion is only allowed in case of rape, risk to the mother and serious malformation of the foetus.
Proposals have been made in Brazil to apply jail terms of up to 20 years for aborting after 22 weeks of pregnancy, even in cases of rape.
A woman sits on the steps of the US Supreme Court in Washington August 14, 2024. In 2022, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court of the United States overturned the landmark 1973 ‘Roe v Wade’ decision that had enshrined a woman’s right to a termination for half a century. — Reuters pic
US U-turn
In 2022, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court of the United States overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v Wade” decision that had enshrined a woman’s right to a termination for half a century.
The court ruled that individual states can permit or restrict the procedure themselves.
Some 20 states, mainly in the south and centre, have since decreed bans or heavy restrictions on abortion.
States on the eastern and west coast have, by contrast, expanded access to terminations. — AFP
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Publish date : 2024-09-28 16:00:00
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