Strictly prohibited in some countries, severely restricted in others, access to abortion, which is celebrated as World Abortion Day this Saturday, remains a fragile right in the world.
According to the NGO Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), only 34% of women of childbearing age live in countries (77 in total) where abortion is permitted on request. According to the same source, clandestine abortions cause 39,000 deaths per year.
In March, France became the first country to explicitly include voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in its Constitution.
Here is an overview of the right to abortion around the world.
– A sometimes very recent right –
Over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries have changed their laws to make abortion easier to access, according to the CRR, an abortion rights organization.
In Ireland, abortion has only been legal since 2018, after a historic referendum. It was also liberalized in 2019 in Northern Ireland, the only part of the United Kingdom where it was still prohibited.
New Zealand only decriminalized abortion in 2020. In Australia, New South Wales became the last state in the country to decriminalize abortion in September 2019.
In Thailand, abortion was decriminalized in early 2021 and IVGs were fully legalized in 2022 up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Also in Asia, the highest court in South Korea ordered the lifting of the ban in 2019.
In Africa, Benin authorized abortions in 2021 while in 2022, the president of Sierra Leone gave the green light to decriminalization.
On the South American continent, the right to abortion has made progress in several countries: in Colombia, abortion was legalized in early 2022, regardless of the reason, before 24 weeks of pregnancy. In Mexico, following two Supreme Court decisions in 2021 and 2023, abortion up to twelve weeks of gestation has been decriminalized in around fifteen states.
– Forbidden or very limited –
Abortion remains banned in around twenty countries, particularly in Africa and Latin America, according to the CRR.
In 1998, El Salvador passed draconian legislation that prohibits all abortions, even if they pose a risk to the health of the mother or child, and provides for penalties of up to eight years in prison.
In Europe, a total ban remains an exception (Andorra and the Vatican).
In Malta, where abortions were previously banned, a minimum authorisation was voted in June 2023, in the event of danger to the mother's life and when the foetus is not viable.
In several other countries, abortion is only permitted to save the mother: this is the case in Nigeria, Libya, Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Burma, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Paraguay and Venezuela, according to the CRR.
In Brazil and Chile, access to abortion is limited to cases of rape, risks to the mother or serious malformations of the fetus.
In Brazil, a text currently under review even provides for the application of sentences of up to 20 years in prison if the pregnancy is terminated after 22 weeks, including in cases of rape.
– The American case –
The United States has had a very mixed law on abortion since the Supreme Court overturned, in June 2022, the famous Roe v. Wade decision which, since 1973, guaranteed the right of American women to have an abortion.
This decision left each state free to authorize them or not.
Result: Twenty states, mainly located in the south and center, have imposed restrictions or bans. On the contrary, states on the east and west coasts of the country have adopted new guarantees to protect the right to abortion.
– Tightening of prohibitions or restrictions –
In some countries, bans or restrictions on access to abortion have been tightened in recent years: Honduras, which prohibits abortion even in cases of rape or incest, serious malformation of the fetus or when the life or health of the mother is threatened, approved a constitutional reform in January 2021 making any change in legislation more difficult.
In Poland, abortion is only permitted in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother's life is in danger, and recent attempts to liberalise the law have failed.
The rules for abortions have been tightened in Hungary: since September 2022, a woman wishing to have an abortion must be confronted with the "vital functions" of the fetus, such as listening to its heartbeat.
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