Abortion

Abortion law

The Soviet Union (1920) and Iceland (1935) were some of the first countries to generally allow abortion. The second half of the twentieth century saw the liberalization of abortion laws in many other countries. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws banning abortion, controversially ruling that such laws violated an inferred right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada, similarly, discarded its criminal code regarding abortion in 1988, after ruling that such restrictions violated the security of person guaranteed to women under in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ireland, on the other hand, added an amendment to its Constitution in 1983 by popular referendum, recognizing "the right to life of the unborn." (see Abortion in Ireland).

Related Topics:
Soviet Union - 1920 - Iceland - 1935 - 1973 - U.S. Supreme Court - Right to privacy - U.S. Constitution - Supreme Court of Canada - 1988 - Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - Ireland - Amendment - Constitution - Abortion in Ireland

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Current laws pertaining to abortion are diverse. Religious, moral, and cultural sensibilities continue to influence abortion laws throughout the world. Two major issues of human rights are used as justification for laws controlling abortion. The right to life and the right of personal liberty, both championed by human rights documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are used as justification for the existence or absence of laws controling abortion. In many countries in which abortion is legal, require that certain criteria be met in order for an abortion to be obtained, sometimes including a trimester cutoff for the window in which abortion is still legal to perform:

Related Topics:
Human rights - Justification - Right to life - Liberty - Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Trimester

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• In the United States, some states impose a 24-hour waiting period before the procedure, prescribe the distribution of information on fetal development, or require that parents be contacted if their minor daughter requests an abortion.
• In the United Kingdom, as in some other countries, two doctors must first certify that an abortion is medically or socially necessitated before it can be performed.

Other countries, in which abortion is illegal, will allow one to be performed in the case of rape, incest, or danger to the pregnant woman's life or health. A handful of nations ban abortion entirely, such as Chile, El Salvador, and Malta.

Related Topics:
Rape - Incest - Chile - El Salvador - Malta

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In addition, multi-national and international treaties, conventions, and laws may either serve as the justification for national laws, or international law may actually be enforced on and within a nation. There is an inherent difficulty in the enforcement of international law due to the issue that state sovereignty poses. As such, the effectiveness of even binding multinational efforts to legislate the rights to life and liberty in general, or abortion in specific, is difficult to measure. Examples of such efforts that have or might have bearing for abortion law, nationally or internationally, include:

Related Topics:
International law - Sovereignty

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• The 1978 American Convention on Human Rights states, in Article 4.1, "Every person has the right to have his life respected. This right shall be protected by law and, in general, from the moment of conception." The Convention is considered binding only for the 24 of 35 member nations of the Organization of American States who ratified it. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found that the words "in general" left room for individual nations to determine their own abortion legislation. http://www.wcl.american.edu/humright/digest/1980/res2381.cfm
• The 1994 Programme of Action states, in paragraph 8.25, "In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning. . . Any measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process. In circumstances where abortion is not against the law, such abortion should be safe." The nonbinding document was adopted by at least 179 countries at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, Egypt.
• The 1995 Beijing Platform for Action states, in paragraph 96, ?The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.? The nonbinding document has been adopted by 189 countries at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China. It calls upon nations in which abortion remains illegal to reconsider laws that punish women, but does not specifically advocate the legalization of abortion.