A list of countries classified according to their abortion laws can be viewed by downloading a PDF file of the map. The map of global abortion laws is the definitive record of the legal status of abortion in countries around the world. Since 1998, the Center for Reproductive Rights has created this map as a resource for advocates, government officials, and civil society organizations working to promote abortion rights as human rights for women and girls* worldwide. The map categorizes the legal status of abortion on a continuum from strict restriction to relative liberality. It is updated in real time and reflects changes in national laws so that human rights defenders can monitor how countries protect or deny reproductive rights around the world. Access to safe abortion has been established as a human right by many international frameworks, the United Nations. Human Rights Committee and regional human rights tribunals, including the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples` Rights. El Salvador is one of only two countries to have introduced new restrictions on abortion since the 1994 Cairo Declaration, which recognized reproductive health as crucial for development. (The other is Nicaragua.) During the revision of the penal code after a devastating thirteen-year civil war, El Salvador amended its abortion law, which in most cases already prohibited the procedure in order to eliminate all exceptions, thus imposing a general ban. Although a handful of other countries have equally restrictive abortion laws, El Salvador is unique in the rigor of its application: doctors are required to report suspected abortions, and there is even a special department of the prosecutor`s office tasked with investigating. Between 2000 and 2011, more than 129 women were prosecuted for abortion and at least 13 remain in prison, some of whom are serving decades in prison.
In addition, Roe v Wade could soon be canceled. The current Supreme Court has refused to block a 2021 Texas law banning abortions in all but fatal situations once “heart activity” (the precursor to a heartbeat) can be detected, or about six weeks of pregnancy — a time when a woman may not yet realize she`s pregnant. The law also allows citizens to prosecute anyone they believe has performed or supported an abortion, a clause that many opponents say could spiral out of control. While the Texas law still faces a tough legal battle, the court`s initial position of non-interaction was seen by some as a sign that the court is ready to overturn Roe v Wade in the near future. Ireland voted in 2018 to remove the abortion ban from its constitution. Abortion is now allowed until the 12th week of pregnancy if the mother`s health or life is in danger or if the fetus has a birth defect. The final record of the legal status of abortion in countries around the world, updated in real time. The map of global abortion laws provides complementary tools and resources to help advocates and policymakers promote abortion reform. These include: Below, we will briefly look at some of the world`s largest countries and their respective perspectives on abortions, abortion laws to date, or abortion bans over the years. The categorizations on the map reflect a strict interpretation of the black letter law in force in each country.
Abortion laws are classified according to the provisions of national laws, legal regulations and court decisions. Ministerial directives are not used to categorize the legal status of abortion on the map unless they have the force of law. Ashurst, DLA Piper, Gomez-Pinzon Abogados and White & Case provided pro bono assistance in reviewing the laws of each country, with legal interpretations provided by lawyers practising in each country, where appropriate. For the purposes of the map, “countries” include independent States and, in countries with a population of more than one million, semi-autonomous regions, territories and special status jurisdictions. Poland is a strictly Catholic country and has some of the most restrictive laws in Europe. The law was amended in 2021 to make it illegal to terminate a pregnancy with fetal malformations, and it is now only possible to obtain an abortion to save a woman`s life, maintain her health or in cases of rape or incest. The Central American country has one of the strictest abortion laws in the world, banned since 1985. In 2021, the legislator enshrined the ban in the country`s constitution; Now, any changes to the abortion law require at least a three-quarters majority in the National Congress. UN experts estimate that between 50,000 and 80,000 unsafe abortions take place in Honduras each year. Honduras` neighbors, El Salvador and Nicaragua, have also banned abortion, and they are the only two countries to have introduced new restrictions on abortion since the 1994 Cairo Declaration, which recognized reproductive health as crucial for development. In recent decades, monumental progress has been made in guaranteeing women`s right to abortion, with nearly 50 countries liberalizing their abortion laws.
Part of this reform has been gradual, allowing women to access legal abortion only when there is a threat to their lives or when the pregnancy results from rape. But many of these changes have been truly transformative, lifting absolute abortion bans in favor of women`s reproductive autonomy. In some countries, liberal abortion laws protect access to abortion services. This legislation is often intended to protect abortion clinics from obstruction, vandalism, picketing and other actions, or to protect patients and staff in these facilities from threats and harassment. Other laws create a perimeter around a facility called a “buffer zone,” “bubble zone,” or “access zone,” where anti-abortion protests are not allowed. Events and other exhibitions are limited to a certain distance from the building, which varies according to the law. Similar zones have also been created to protect the homes of abortion providers and clinicians. Bubble zone laws are divided into “fixed” and “floating” categories. Laws on fixed bubble zones apply to the static zone around the plant itself and floating laws to objects in transit, such as people or cars.
[544] Due to conflicts between anti-abortion activists on the one hand and women seeking abortions and medical staff who offer abortion on the other, some laws are quite strict: in South Africa, for example, anyone who prevents legal abortion or obstructs access to an abortion center faces up to 10 years in prison (section 10.1(c) of the Abortion Act[545]). Abortion rates are relatively similar between countries with highly restrictive abortion laws and those where the procedure is allowed without restriction, between 34 and 37 per 1,000 women per year [PDF], but the safety of the procedure varies widely: nearly 90% of abortions in countries with liberal abortion laws are considered safe, compared to only 25% in countries, in which abortion is banned. The average abortion rate worldwide has declined by five percentage points since 1994, and by up to nineteen percentage points in developed countries.