The United States Supreme Court appears ready to vote to overturn Rowe’s ruling against Wade, which legalizes abortion across the country, according to an expired initial draft majority opinion released by Politico on Monday.
As new restrictions on abortion rights are being pursued in the United States and other countries, here’s a look at global abortion statistics and some of the world’s most stringent abortion laws.
The information is based on data from the UN World Health Organization, as well as the research group of the Gutmacher Institute and the Legal Advocacy Group of the Center for Reproductive Rights, both of which support abortion rights.
– Approximately 73 million abortions are performed worldwide each year, with 61% of all unwanted pregnancies and 29% of all pregnancies ending in abortion, according to the World Health Organization. It says about 45% of all abortions are dangerous, of which 97% are performed in developing countries. The WHO newsletter states that “unsafe abortion is a leading but preventable cause of maternal mortality and morbidity.”
– There are 16 countries where abortion is banned altogether, and the list includes Egypt, Iraq, the Philippines, Laos, Senegal, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. About three dozen other countries allow it only to save the mother’s life, including Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan and Myanmar. About 40% of women of childbearing age live in places where access to abortion is illegal or restricted.
– The United States has passed a series of restrictive laws at the state level, backed by Republicans, with the US Supreme Court with a conservative majority to vote to repeal a 1973 precedent that legalized nationwide abortion proceedings. in Mississippi a ban beginning at 15 weeks of pregnancy, a law blocked by lower courts. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, heard oral arguments in December about the Mississippi’s attempt to renew the ban, and it appears the majority is willing to support the Mississippi abortion ban and may have five votes to repeal Rowe.
– Poland in January 2021 enacted a decision of the Constitutional Court banning abortions performed due to fetal defects, banning the most common of the few legal grounds for abortion in a country that is predominantly Catholic.
– El Salvador has some of the strictest abortion laws in the world, and the procedure has been banned without exception since 1998. More than 180 women who have suffered obstetric emergencies have been prosecuted for abortion or aggravated murder in the past 20 years.
– Women in Malta are denied access to abortion, even if their lives are in danger. It is the only EU member state to completely ban the procedure. The women face up to three years in prison.
– Senegal bans abortion, but its medical code of ethics allows it if three doctors agree that it is necessary to save a woman’s life. A 2014 study shows that the rules force women to seek illegal abortions and, in extreme cases, to kill their own babies.
– Abortion is prohibited in the United Arab Emirates unless the pregnancy endangers the woman’s life or there is evidence that the baby will not survive. Women can face up to a year in prison and a serious fine. Women seeking hospital treatment for miscarriage may be charged with attempted abortion.
– Anti-abortion laws in the Philippines date back to a time when it was a Spanish colony. Abortion has been banned for more than a century. About 1,000 Filipino women die each year from complications. Spain is among more than 50 countries that have liberalized abortion laws in the last quarter of a century.
Report by Katarina Demoni; Edited by William McLean
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