{"id":35141,"date":"2022-07-08T15:24:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T11:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=35141"},"modified":"2022-07-08T15:24:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T11:24:48","slug":"what-abortion-access-and-reproductive-rights-look-like-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/what-abortion-access-and-reproductive-rights-look-like-around-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"What abortion access and-reproductive rights look like around the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

An expert explains how reproductive rights are changing globally.<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"Liberal abortion restrictions don\u2019t mean that abortion is always accessible, as in Croatia. Pic- EPA-EFE<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0global landscape of reproductive rights\u00a0is constantly shifting. The US Supreme Court ruling that has\u00a0overturned Roe v Wade\u00a0\u2013 the landmark 1973 decision that protected a woman\u2019s right to have an abortion \u2013 marks a significant regression for abortion access. But it is not the only case. While countries like the US, Poland and Russia are taking steps backward, gains are being made in places such as Ireland, Colombia and Argentina.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abortion restrictions\u00a0range from laws where abortion is permitted only to protect the pregnant person\u2019s life or health, to decriminalising abortion entirely. Often, restrictions are structured around gestational time limits, such as allowing abortion only in the first trimester.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some laws allow for abortion on socioeconomic grounds, for example in\u00a0Finland. And Britain\u2019s 1967 Abortion Act is an example of a broad interpretation of health that includes wellbeing. Doctors may take account of the pregnant woman\u2019s actual or reasonably foreseeable life circumstances when making a decision about the impact of continuing a pregnancy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where health is interpreted more restrictively, such as in\u00a0Zimbabwe, Morocco or Peru, abortion may only be available if a pregnant person\u2019s physical health is in danger. In other regions, such as Ghana or Bolivia, language referring to mental health is explicitly included in legislation, which can widen abortion access.<\/span><\/p>\n

In some regimes, abortion can be performed later in pregnancy based on the health of the foetus, especially in cases of serious anomaly. This is the case in\u00a0Croatia. Despite this, anti-choice sentiment in the country recently led to a woman being denied an abortion after her foetus was diagnosed with a serious brain tumour. After four denials by Croatian hospitals, the woman was advised by doctors to travel to neighbouring Slovenia. But following media and public outcry, she was finally permitted to have an abortion in Croatia.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most liberal abortion laws are those where abortion has been removed from criminal law entirely. Decriminalisation permits abortion without penalty and prioritises the safety of pregnant people in making health decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Northern Ireland decriminalised abortion in 2019 following an international human rights inquiry into its abortion laws and subsequent intervention from Westminster.\u00a0The Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020\u00a0came into effect in March 2020. These regulations allow abortion up to 12 weeks on request, and after that on specific grounds of severe foetal impairment and fatal foetal abnormalities.<\/span><\/p>\n

While\u00a0Northern Ireland\u2019s abortion laws\u00a0have been liberalised, this does not necessarily mean abortion is easily accessed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The government has failed to fully\u00a0commission services, meaning that abortion is being provided on an ad hoc basis by health trusts in Northern Ireland. Some women seeking abortions have continued to travel to England, illustrating how political deadlock can limit abortion access.<\/span><\/p>\n

More restrictive<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In some countries, abortion is prohibited entirely, or only to save the pregnant person\u2019s life.\u00a0Malta\u00a0is the only EU country where abortion\u00a0is banned under all circumstances. Malta has recently seen a\u00a0pro-choice movement emerge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Draconian restrictions on abortion also affect general reproductive and maternal care, like miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. They can delay decision making with urgent medical care when the rights of the foetus are considered equal to the rights of the pregnant woman. In\u00a0El Salvador, women have been prosecuted and imprisoned for having miscarriages or attempting to procure an abortion. Charged under aggravated homicide, a sentence can be up to 50 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Republic of Ireland, before liberalisation in 2018, abortion laws affected all aspects of maternal healthcare. The foetus was viewed to have equal rights to the pregnant woman, allowing healthcare professionals to overrule her requests. In 2014, a pregnant woman who was brain dead was\u00a0kept on life support\u00a0for four weeks against the wishes of her family, on the basis that the right to life of the foetus could have been breached.<\/span><\/p>\n

Activist movements to liberalise abortion laws have made significant gains in the last few years as seen on the island of Ireland, but also in\u00a0Colombia\u00a0where the constitutional court decriminalised abortion up to 24 weeks in 2022. In\u00a0Argentina, abortion has been legal on request in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy since 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Outside the law<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Progress on abortion rights has been cyclical, not linear. As we are seeing in the US, anti-abortion movements continue to push back against any gains that are made. Regression on reproductive rights often\u00a0correlates\u00a0with wider backlashes on gender rights and the rise of far right and populist political regimes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Laws are just one part of abortion access.\u00a0Conscientious objection\u00a0by healthcare professionals, regulations targeting abortion providers, stigma and protests at clinics all make it more difficult and riskier to obtain an abortion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even in countries with less restrictive laws, there are movements outside of legal frameworks to help people access abortions and healthcare, by assisting with travel or financial support.<\/span><\/p>\n

While these\u00a0activist networks and organisations\u00a0are often viewed as sticking plasters that won\u2019t be needed when restrictions are relaxed, the reality is that barriers to abortion continue to exist after laws change. The England-based organisation\u00a0Abortion Support Network\u00a0continues to help around 60 women a year from Ireland, four years after abortion laws were liberalised. These efforts are just as much a part of reproductive rights as the legal framework \u2013 and their work is not finished when laws change.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Claire Pierson,
\n<\/strong><\/span>University of Liverpool<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 8 July 2022<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An expert explains how reproductive rights are changing globally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":35142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[10667,33833,25957,15505,13210,33831,33832,29930,29535],"class_list":["post-35141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-abortion","tag-abortion-access","tag-global-health","tag-healthcare","tag-pregnancy","tag-public-health-care","tag-reproductive-rights","tag-roe-v-wade","tag-womens-rights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/C-What-abortion-access.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-98N","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}