The United States was an international exception for authorizing abortion when the pregnancy is already more than halfway through.
Last month, Chief Justice John Roberts asserted that the United States was an international exception for authorizing abortion when the pregnancy is already more than half-term. He mentioned that that deadline puts the United States on a par with North Korea and China.
In some ways, that’s true, but not in all. In few countries, unrestricted abortion is legal until the fetus is viable, the deadline set by the Roe v. Wade ruling, which was set 49 years ago. Due to advances in medicine, that date is now at 23 weeks. In addition, only about a dozen other countries allow abortion for any reason beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy, the maximum in the Mississippi law being considered by the Supreme Court, which could overturn the Roe ruling.
However, for a number of reasons, such as economic or health reasons, in many countries women can have an abortion after the pregnancy deadline. It may be easier to get an abortion in some of them than it is in many places in the United States. In addition, it is common for countries in similar conditions to have more places to perform abortions and cover the cost involved.
“Access to abortion remains out of reach for many women in the United States, as established,” said Risa Kaufman, director of human rights in the United States at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which fights abortion restrictions in the United States. United States courts and monitors international law. “That contrasts with many countries, including those in Western Europe, which offer access to fully funded, subsidized abortion services, universal health care, contraception and broader social programs.”
The United States is also an exception in another way: for considering rolling back abortion access. The Mississippi case is a direct challenge to the Roe ruling. If the court reverses this ruling, more than 20 states are expected to ban or severely restrict abortion at all stages of pregnancy.
According to this center, since 1994, only three countries have toughened laws related to abortion: Poland, El Salvador and Nicaragua. In that period, 59 have expanded them. In 2018, Ireland, which prohibited abortion in most cases, legalized it up to twelve weeks upon request. Other countries, such as South Korea, have decriminalized it.
“The trend in the United States is very much minority,” said Joanna Mishtal, an anthropologist at the University of Central Florida who studies reproductive rights policy in Europe. Mishtal mentioned that Poland is the only European country that “is systematically restricting both policies and actual access to services that remain legal.”
How abortion is governed around the world
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, globally, six out of ten women of reproductive age live in countries where abortion is generally legal.
According to data from this center related to national laws that have been formally adopted, 66 countries, where only more than a quarter of women of reproductive age live, prohibit abortion or authorize it only if the life of the woman is at risk.
In 63 countries, where 35 percent of women of reproductive age live, they authorize abortion for different reasons, which include the protection of the physical or mental health of women or considerations of their social or economic situation.
In 74 countries, where 38 percent of women live, they authorize abortion for any reason within a certain number of weeks. The most common deadline is twelve weeks. In addition to the United States, about a dozen countries allow abortion without restrictions or conditions after 15 weeks, the deadline in question in the Mississippi case. These include North Korea, China, Iceland, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, and Vietnam.
“Compared to other laws nationwide, Mississippi’s abortion system is more permissive than in most countries,” 141 legal experts from around the world wrote in a document addressed to the Supreme Court in support of the state. from Mississippi.
Some countries have greater access than is stated in the law…
However, in some of these countries, abortion is allowed after the deadline if the woman has a valid reason, and experts say that in some of them, abortion is allowed until the fetus is viable, as is the case in the United States. United.
For example, in Germany, abortion is authorized, upon request, up to 12 weeks and up to 22 weeks if, according to the woman, it is necessary to protect her physical or mental health or for reasons of her present or future standard of living. In Denmark, where the deadline is also 12 weeks, abortion is authorized after that time based on some factors such as health, the woman’s age, her income or housing, or her interests or occupation.
Other countries also allow exceptions after 12 weeks, but they are less extensive. For example, in France and Ireland, the exceptions are in order to prevent serious health problems or death or when the fetus has a serious and incurable disease.
In the United States, only eight percent of abortions occur after the thirteenth week. One reason some women have late-term abortions is because of obstacles in that country. It’s not so quick to save money for the procedure, arranging for transportation, child care, and days off from work to get to the clinic if one isn’t available nearby.
… and other countries have less
In much of Europe, abortion-related laws can be more permissive than what is stated on paper. But in other parts of the world, there is less access to abortion than the law allows. Abortion is banned in most sub-Saharan African countries, but even those that say they allow it, like South Africa, have limited access to it.
“Also the availability of safe and affordable services in government hospitals may be limited by a shortage of health professionals trained to provide these legal abortions or insufficient knowledge of abortion-related laws,” explained Siri Suh, a a sociologist of medicine at Brandeis University who has conducted research on reproductive health in Africa.
In Italy, abortion is generally legal and free, but nearly three-quarters of doctors in that country have registered as conscientious objectors. and are exempt from performing abortions for religious or moral reasons. Mishtal and her colleagues found that other doctors feel pressured by their colleagues not to perform abortions. “They have a chilling effect,” he said. “There is a huge discrepancy between the law and actual access.”
How is the United States different?
In other wealthy democracies, public health insurance covers abortion costs, as well as other reproductive health services, including contraceptives. For example, in Ireland, the cost of abortion is fully covered, any general practitioner can perform the procedure, and there is a government advice line on how to access an abortion or a nurse during recovery.
In most cases, the United States prohibits the government from funding abortions. In addition, the tendency is for abortions to be performed only in special clinics that are almost always far from where the women who require them live. It is more normal than in other countries that are in similar conditions to be carried out in ordinary hospitals or in medical centers.
Most European countries have come to establish their laws related to abortion through laws that involve political agreements. In the United States, the feasibility limit originated in the Supreme Court. Michael New, a law professor at the Catholic University of America who is in favor of greater restrictions on abortion in the United States, mentioned that this difference in the process could explain why the gestation limit in the United States law it is broader than in most countries under similar conditions.
“A legal debate that is based on established precedent can be very different from a democratic or moral debate,” he said in an email.
Likewise, the United States is atypical in having such a wide range of laws in each state, a particularity that would be accentuated if the Roe ruling were annulled. “In California, abortion access is pretty much the same as it is in the UK, whereas right now, abortion access in Texas is some of the most restrictive in the world,” said Caitlin Gerdts, vice president of Ibis Reproductive. Health, a research group.
Illegal abortion is becoming easier and safer
The nature of illegal abortion around the world is being transformed by the availability of pills that can terminate pregnancy. Historically, countries where abortion is not legal tended to have high rates of unsafe abortions. But abortion-inducing pills are safe and easy to transport. In the most effective protocol studied there are two drugs. But according to recent research, only one, misoprostol, a gastric ulcer drug on the World Health Organization’s list of “essential medicines,” induces a complete abortion in about 80 percent. percent or more of cases.
In some countries, misoprostol is sold without a prescription in pharmacies. Activists in South America and Africa have increasingly helped women obtain and use this drug outside the official health system. In Europe, there are groups that manage online orders for these pills, even for women in the United States, from pharmacies outside the country.
In a post-Roe v. Wade world, some countries may seek to make such aid, or pill use, subject to sanctions. In El Salvador, where abortion is prohibited but misoprostol is widely used, there are times when women who abort are imprisoned.
“Risks have also changed,” Gerdts noted, “from being physical to being legal.” (I)
Claire Cain Miller and Margot Sanger-Katz
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