The organization  Women on Waves  has been providing education about medical abortions since 1999. The NGO created a mobile medical clinic inside a shipping container, which then travels on rented ships to countries with restrictive abortion laws. Because the ships are registered in the Netherlands, Dutch law prevails when the ship is in international waters. While in port, the organization provides free workshops and education; while in international waters, medical personnel are legally able to prescribe medical abortion drugs and counseling. [ 248 ] [ 249 ] [ 250 ]


Sonography  and  amniocentesis  allow parents to determine sex before childbirth. The development of this technology has led to  sex-selective abortion , or the termination of a fetus based on its sex. The selective termination of a female fetus is most common.


Sex-selective abortion is partially responsible for the noticeable disparities between the birth rates of male and female children in some countries. The preference for male children is reported in many areas of Asia, and abortion used to limit female births has been reported in Taiwan, South Korea, India, and China. [ 251 ]  This deviation from the standard birth rates of males and females occurs despite the fact that the country in question may have officially banned sex-selective abortion or even sex-screening. [ 252 ] [ 253 ] [ 254 ] [ 255 ]  In China, a historical preference for a male child has been exacerbated by the  one-child policy , which was enacted in 1979. [ 256 ]


Many countries have taken legislative steps to reduce the incidence of sex-selective abortion. At the  International Conference on Population and Development  in 1994 over 180 states agreed to eliminate "all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference", [ 257 ]  conditions also condemned by a  PACE  resolution in 2011. [ 258 ]  The  World Health Organization  and  UNICEF , along with other  United Nations  agencies, have found that measures to restrict access to abortion in an effort to reduce sex-selective abortions have unintended negative consequences, largely stemming from the fact that women may seek or be coerced into seeking unsafe, extralegal abortions. [ 257 ]  On the other hand, measures to reduce  gender inequality  can reduce the prevalence of such abortions without attendant negative consequences. [ 257 ] [ 259 ]


Abortion providers and facilities have been subjected to violence, including murder, assault, arson, and bombing. Some scholars consider anti-abortion violence to be within the  definition of terrorism , [ 260 ]  a view shared by some governments. [ 261 ]  In the U.S. and Canada, over 8,000 incidents of violence, trespassing, and death threats have been recorded by providers since 1977, including over 200 bombings/arsons and hundreds of assaults. [ 262 ]  Abortion clinics have also been targeted by  acid attacks , invasions, and vandalism [ 263 ]  The majority of abortion opponents have not been involved in violent acts.


Physicians and other abortion clinic staff have been murdered by abortion opponents. In the United States, at least four physicians have been murdered in connection with their work at abortion clinics, including  David Gunn  (1993),  John Britton  (1994),  Barnett Slepian  (1998), and  George Tiller  (2009). In Canada, gynecologist  Garson Romalis  survived murder attempts in both 1994 and 2000. Besides physicians, killings have targeted other clinic staff, such as  John Salvi's  1994 murder of two receptionists in Massachusetts clinic and  Peter Knight's  2001 murder of a security guard in a  Melbourne  clinic. Notable perpetrators of anti-abortion violence include  Eric Rudolph ,  Scott Roeder ,  Shelley Shannon , and  Paul Hill , the first person to be executed in the United States for murdering an abortion provider. [ 264 ]


Some countries have  laws to protecting access to abortion .
Such laws prevent abortion opponents from interfering with access to legal abortion services. For example, the American  Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act  bars the use of threats or violence to interfere with abortion access. Abortion access laws may also establish  safe access zones  around abortion clinics, with limits on protests and enhanced penalties for anti-abortion violence. [ 265 ]


Psychological pressure may also be used to limit abortion access. In 2003, Chris Danze organized anti-abortion organizations throughout Texas to prevent the construction of a  Planned Parenthood  facility in Austin. The organizations  released the personal information  online of those involved with construction, sent them up to 1200 phone calls a day and contacted their churches. [ 266 ]  Some protestors record women entering clinics on camera. [ 266 ]


Spontaneous abortion occurs in various animals. For example, in sheep it may be caused by stress or physical exertion, such as crowding through doors or being chased by dogs. [ 267 ]  In cows, abortion may be caused by contagious disease, such as  brucellosis  or  Campylobacter , but can often be controlled by vaccination. [ 268 ]  Eating  pine needles  can also induce abortions in cows. [ 269 ] [ 270 ]  Several plants, including  broomweed ,  skunk cabbage ,  poison hemlock , and  tree tobacco , are known to cause fetal deformities and abortion in cattle [ 271 ] : 45–46   and in sheep and goats. [ 271 ] : 77–80   In horses, a fetus may be aborted or reabsorbed if it has  lethal white syndrome . Foal embryos that are homozygous for the  dominant white  gene (WW) are theorized to also be aborted or  resorbed  before birth. [ 272 ]  In many species of sharks and rays, stress-induced abortions occur frequently on capture. [ 273 ]


Viral infection can cause abortion in dogs. [ 274 ]  Cats can experience spontaneous abortion for many reasons, including hormonal imbalance. A combined abortion and spaying is performed on pregnant cats, especially in  trap–neuter–return  programs, to prevent unwanted kittens from being born. [ 275 ] [ 276 ] [ 277 ]  Female rodents may terminate a pregnancy when exposed to the smell of a male not responsible for the pregnancy, known as the  Bruce effect . [ 278 ]


Abortion may also be induced in animals, in the context of  animal husbandry . For example, abortion may be induced in mares that have been mated improperly, or that have been purchased by owners who did not realize the mares were pregnant, or that are pregnant with twin foals. [ 279 ]  Feticide can occur in horses and zebras due to male harassment of pregnant mares or forced copulation, [ 280 ] [ 281 ] [ 282 ]  although the frequency in the wild has been questioned. [ 283 ]  Male  gray langur  monkeys may attack females following male takeover, causing miscarriage. [ 284 ]


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Abortion doping  is a rumoured practice of purposely inducing  pregnancy  specifically for athletic performance-enhancing benefits, and then  aborting  the pregnancy. Rumours and allegations began during international sporting events in the mid-twentieth century, and a number of doctors and scientists have repeated claims about it, but it remains unproven, and is often regarded as a myth.


Hormonal and other changes in pregnancy affect physical performance. In the first three months it is known that a woman's body produces a natural surplus of red blood cells, which are well supplied with oxygen-carrying  hemoglobin , in order to support the growing  fetus . [ 1 ]  Other potential advantages are obtained from the surge in hormones that pregnancy induces, predominantly  progesterone  and  estrogen , but also  testosterone , which could increase muscle strength. Increases in hormones like  relaxin , which loosens the hip joints to prepare for childbirth, may have a performance-enhancing effect on joint mobility. [ 1 ]  Peter Larkins, an official of the Australian Sports Medicine Association, opined that the advantages of abortion doping would be "far outweighed by the drawbacks of  morning sickness  and fatigue" which are common in early pregnancy. [ 2 ]


Although female athletes often become pregnant during their careers and immediately before major sports events, and although many athletes have reported increased performance while being pregnant, "abortion doping" refers specifically to deliberate pregnancy with the express aim to increase performance.  The stigma and beliefs surrounding abortion doping have been found to have a detrimental effect on female athletes who become pregnant during an active career. [ 3 ]


Western media outlets began accusing  Soviet countries  of abortion doping as early as the  1956 Summer Olympics , and allegations were raised again at the  1964 Summer Olympics . [ 2 ]  Rumours of abortion doping continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s, predominately aimed at  East German  athletes. [ 1 ]


Concerns around pregnancy as a doping method were discussed in an IOC Medical Commission meeting on February 16, 1984, though the idea was dismissed as members did not feel “that such a procedure would be of benefit to the female athletes”. [ 4 ]


On May 22, 1988, Finnish doctor Risto Erkola reportedly told the  Sunday Mirror  "It's horrible and immoral. Now that drug testing is routine, pregnancy is becoming the favourite way of getting an edge on competitors". [ 5 ] [ 6 ]  The second sentence of Erkola's comment is frequently cited in discussions, reports and papers [ 3 ]  on abortion doping. [ 2 ]  According to the  fact-checking  website  Snopes.com , media reports following this claim were skeptical of it, and "it is not clear if Erkola would have had any first-hand knowledge of Soviet doping practices". [ 2 ]  In the same Sunday Mirror story, Prof. Renate Huch (misspelled "Hoch" by Sunday Mirror) of Geneva, who deals with artificial insemination, said that "the problem has become so widespread now that [we] made a rule never to help a woman athlete if she wants to get pregnant purely and simply to win a race." [ 5 ] [ 7 ]


On the First Permanent World Conference on Anti-Doping in Sport held in June 1988,  Prince Alexandre de Merode , the vice-president of the  International Olympic Committee  (IOC), supported reports that Eastern European athletes were getting  artificially inseminated  and then aborting two to three months later in an attempt to boost athletic performance on the First Permanent World Conference on Anti-Doping in Sport. Merode said he knew a Swiss doctor who performed the procedure. [ 8 ]  Dr.  Robert Voy  of the United States Olympic Committee dismissed such claims as a "ludicrous myth". [ 9 ]


In the Textbook in Physiology and Pathophysiology (1999), Dr. Paul-Erik Paulev, a Danish professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen, wrote that "in some countries female athletes have become pregnant for 2-3 months, in order to improve their performance just following an abortion."  Dr. Paulev's comment is also frequently cited in discussions on abortion doping; [ 3 ]  his comments were first made in a self-published document that contains no references for its assertions regarding abortion doping. [ 2 ]


In November 1994, a person claiming to be  Olga Karasyova , who won a gold medal in gymnastics at the  1968 Summer Olympics , gave an interview with German television station  RTL Television , in which she said that abortion doping was widespread among Soviet athletes in the 1970s, and that girls as young as 14 were being forced to have sex with their coaches. [ 10 ]  When contacted by various newspapers for comment, Karasyova said the person who had given the interviews was an imposter. [ 11 ] [ 2 ] [ 12 ]   In 1997, Karasyova successfully sued the Russian newspaper "AIDS-Info" for libel after they published references to the 1994 story. [ 13 ] [ 14 ]  Despite her legal victory, the original interviews attributed to her continue to be reported as facts by some third parties. [ 2 ] [ 15 ]


As of 2002, Snopes.com categorises abortion doping as "unproven", concluding that "abortion doping claims, specifically, have their roots in Cold War era rumors, are confirmed only by a single dubious case, are buttressed by speculative science, and are largely amplified in recent years by anti-abortion groups." Snopes accuse anti-abortion groups of  selective reporting  and using poorly sourced arguments when writing articles about the subject. [ 2 ]  Feminist  Germaine Greer  wrote in 2007 that "there is no real evidence" that abortion doping has ever been done, and British health journalist Peta Bea found in 2009 that "evidence that it occurred has never been substantiated". [ 1 ] [ 8 ]


The practice is not considered illegal by the IOC. Prince Alexandre de Merode has stated the organisation does not "police motherhood". [ 16 ]  Abortion doping is not on the  World Anti-Doping Agency 's current list of prohibited substances or methods. [ 17 ]


The issue is addressed in season two of the Finnish-German crime drama television series  Arctic Circle .


Abortion  in the  Bahamas  is illegal in most cases.


In 2022, Prime Minister  Philip Davis ’ Press Secretary Clint Watson confirmed that abortion would remain illegal for the foreseeable future, according to Caribbean news site Loop. However, Watson said that this could change in future if people's views change. [ 1 ]


According to the Bahamas Penal Code article 315, "Whoever intentionally and unlawfully causes abortion or miscarriage shall be liable to imprisonment for ten years". [ 2 ]


Abortions can only be performed in cases of foetal deformity, rape or incest, and on health grounds. [ 1 ]  However, in response to a periodic review by the UN's  CEDAW  committee, the Bahamian government said that “Abortions are usually performed within the first trimester, although they are often allowed up to 20 weeks of gestation. The abortion must be performed in a hospital by a licensed physician. Government hospitals bear the cost for non-paying patients.” [ 3 ]


According to The Tribune, "A respected medical doctor, who works in the public system, told The Tribune, there are no statistics on abortion because the market for abortions in the Bahamas is underground." The doctor added that there is a culture of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” [ 3 ]


In February 2022, Bahamian Health Minister Dr Michael Darville refused to answer when asked what the government's position was on abortion. [ 4 ]


In 2022, presenters of the US chat show  The View  were criticised for vacationing on the Bahamas following the overturning of  Roe v. Wade , because of the restrictive abortion laws in the country. [ 5 ]


Abortion-rights movements , also self-styled as  pro-choice  movements , are  movements  that advocate for  legal  access to induced  abortion  services, including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pregnancy without fear of legal or social backlash.  These movements are in direct opposition to  anti-abortion movements .


The issue of induced abortion remains divisive in public life, with  recurring arguments  to liberalize or to restrict access to legal abortion services. Some abortion-rights supporters are divided as to the types of abortion services that should be available under different circumstances, including periods in the pregnancy such as  late term abortions , in which access may or may not be restricted.


Many of the terms used in the debate are  political framing  terms used to validate one's own stance while invalidating the opposition's. For example, the labels  pro-choice and pro-life  imply endorsement of widely held values such as  liberty  and  freedom , while suggesting that the opposition must be "anti-choice" or "anti-life". [ 1 ]


These views do not always fall along a binary; in one  Public Religion Research Institute  poll, they noted that the vagueness of the terms led to seven in ten Americans describing themselves as "pro-choice", while almost two-thirds described themselves as "pro-life". [ 2 ]  It was found that, in polling, respondents would label themselves differently when given specific details about the circumstances around an abortion including factors such as rape, incest, viability of the fetus, and survivability of the mother. [ 3 ]


The  Associated Press  favors the terms "abortion rights" and "anti-abortion" instead. [ 4 ]


Abortion practices date back to 1550  BCE , based on the findings of practices recorded on documents. Abortion has been an active practice since Egyptian medicine. Centuries later, abortion was a topic taken up by  feminism . [ 5 ]
According to historian James C. Mohr, there was an earlier acceptance of abortion, and opposition to abortion, including anti-abortion laws, only came into being in the 19th century. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]  It was not always a crime and was generally not illegal until  quickening , which occurred between the fourth and sixth months of pregnancy. [ 8 ]  In the 19th century, the medical profession was generally opposed to abortion.  Mohr argues that the opposition arose due to competition between men with medical degrees and women without one, such as Madame Drunette. The practice of abortion was one of the first medical specialities, and was practiced by unlicensed people; well-off people had abortions and paid well. The press played a key role in rallying support for anti-abortion laws. [ 7 ]


The ideas of the legalization of abortion in the late 19th century were often opposed by feminists, seeing it as a means of relieving men of responsibility. [ 9 ] [ 10 ]  In  The Revolution , [ 11 ]  which was an official published newspaper of women's rights that went out weekly, operated by  Elizabeth Cady Stanton  and  Susan B. Anthony , an anonymous contributor signing "A" wrote in 1869 about the subject, [ 12 ]  arguing that instead of merely attempting to pass a law against abortion, the root cause must also be addressed.  The Revolution  newspaper highly impacted the women's rights movement, and for the first time, it seemed like women's voices were being heard through the proclamations of these unacknowledged subjects regarding women and their everyday rights and safety as citizens. [ 13 ]  The writer wrote that simply passing an anti-abortion law would "be only mowing off the top of the noxious weed, while the root remains. ... No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh! thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime." [ 10 ] [ 14 ]


Between 1900 and 1965, there were not any  anti-abortion movements  or rallies because states had already passed a law banning abortions at all levels, including prescriptions and procedures. The only exception for a woman to get an abortion without fear of legal retribution was if a licensed physician determined the abortion would protect the mother's life. Physicians who provide abortions and women who have abortions were constantly harassed by courts and prosecutors. In the 1960s, some states began to request changes with the abortion law. In 1959, a group of experts set up a model enactment that supported the advancement of the abortion laws. These experts suggested that the abortion laws should provide exemptions for women that were sexually assaulted or for a baby that may not have a good quality of life. The abortion-rights movement became a controversial topic in the United States regarding abortion and reproduction.


The movement towards the liberalization of abortion law emerged in the 1920s and 1930s in the context of the victories that had been recently won in the area of  birth control . Campaigners including  Marie Stopes  in England and  Margaret Sanger  in the US had succeeded in bringing the issue into the open, and birth control clinics were established which offered family planning advice and contraceptive methods to women in need.  Birth control  is a method of pregnancy prevention through controlled contraception.


In 1929, the  Infant Life Preservation Act  was passed in the  United Kingdom , which amended the law ( Offences against the Person Act 1861 ) so that an abortion carried out in good faith, for the sole purpose of preserving the life of the mother, would not be an offense. [ 15 ]  Many citizens had mixed opinions on this, but ultimately started protesting this as child destruction. Child destruction was known as taking the life of a viable unborn child during a pregnancy or at birth, before it is independent of its mother. If there is an intent of death and no good faith is carried out in the process in order to protect the mother's livelihood, the offense carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. The Infant Life Preservation Act defines the difference between murder and abortion-the causing of a miscarriage. [ 16 ]


Stella Browne  was a leading birth control campaigner, who increasingly began to venture into the more contentious issue of abortion in the 1930s. Browne's beliefs were heavily influenced by the work of  Havelock Ellis ,  Edward Carpenter  and other  sexologists . [ 17 ]  She came to strongly believe that working women should have the choice to become pregnant and to terminate their pregnancy while they worked in the horrible circumstances surrounding a pregnant woman who was still required to do hard labor during her pregnancy. [ 18 ]  In this case she argued that doctors should give free information about birth control to women that wanted to know about it. This would give women agency over their own circumstances and allow them to decide whether they wanted to be mothers or not. [ 19 ]


In the late 1920s, Browne began a speaking tour around England, providing information about her beliefs on the need for accessibility of information about birth control for women, women's health problems, problems related to puberty and sex education and high maternal morbidity rates among other topics. [ 17 ]  These talks urged women to take matters of their sexuality and their health into their own hands. She became increasingly interested in her view of the woman's right to terminate their pregnancies, and in 1929, she brought forward her lecture "The Right to Abortion" in front of the  World Sexual Reform Congress  in London. [ 17 ]  In 1931, Browne began to develop her argument for women's right to decide to have an  abortion . [ 17 ]  She again began touring, giving lectures on abortion and the negative consequences that followed if women were unable to terminate pregnancies of their own choosing such as: suicide, injury, permanent invalidism, madness and blood-poisoning. [ 17 ]


Other prominent feminists, including  Frida Laski ,  Dora Russell ,  Joan Malleson  and  Janet Chance  began to champion this cause – the cause broke dramatically into the mainstream in July 1932 when the  British Medical Association  council formed a committee to discuss making changes to the laws on abortion. [ 17 ]  On February 17, 1936,  Janet Chance , Alice Jenkins and Joan Malleson established the  Abortion Law Reform Association  as the first  advocacy  organization for abortion liberalization. The association promoted access to  abortion in the United Kingdom  and campaigned for the elimination of legal obstacles. [ 20 ]  In its first year ALRA recruited 35 members, and by 1939 had almost 400 members. [ 20 ]


The ALRA was very active between 1936 and 1939 sending speakers around the country to talk about Labour and Equal Citizenship and attempted, though most often unsuccessfully, to have letters and articles published in newspapers. They became the most popular when a member of the ALRA's Medico-Legal Committee received the case of a fourteen-year-old girl who had been raped, and received a termination of this pregnancy from Dr. Joan Malleson, a progenitor of the ALRA. [ 20 ]


In 1938, Joan Malleson precipitated one of the most influential cases in British abortion law when she referred a pregnant fourteen-year old  rape  survivor to  gynaecologist   Aleck Bourne . He performed an abortion, then illegal, and was put on trial on charges of procuring abortion. Bourne was eventually acquitted in  R v. Bourne as his actions were "...an example of disinterested conduct in consonance with the highest traditions of the profession". [ 21 ] [ 22 ]  This court case set a precedent that doctors could not be prosecuted for performing an abortion in cases where pregnancy would probably cause "mental and physical wreck".


The  Abortion Law Reform Association  continued its campaigning after the Second World War, and this, combined with broad social changes brought the issue of abortion back into the political arena in the 1960s. President of the  Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists   John Peel  chaired the committee advising the  British Government  on what became the  Abortion Act 1967 , which allowed for legal abortion on a number of grounds, including to avoid injury to the physical or mental health of the woman or her existing child(ren) if the pregnancy was still under 28 weeks. [ 23 ]


In America an abortion reform movement emerged in the 1960s. In 1964,  Gerri Santoro  of  Connecticut  died trying to obtain an illegal abortion and her photo became the symbol of the abortion rights movement. Some women's rights activist groups developed their own skills to provide abortions to women who could not obtain them elsewhere. As an example, in Chicago, a group known as " Jane " operated a floating abortion clinic throughout much of the 1960s. Women seeking the procedure would call a designated number and be given instructions on how to find "Jane". [ 24 ]


In the late 1960s, a number of organizations were formed to mobilize opinion both against and for the legalization of abortion. The forerunner of the  NARAL Pro-Choice America  was formed in 1969 to oppose restrictions on abortion and expand access to abortion. [ 25 ]  In late 1973, NARAL became the National Abortion Rights Action League.


The landmark judicial ruling of the  Supreme Court  in  Roe v. Wade  ruled that a  Texas  statute forbidding abortion except when necessary to save the life of the mother was unconstitutional. This was back in 1970, where Jane Roe, (which was actually a fictional name used in the court documents in order to protect the plaintiff's identity), had filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade. He was the district attorney of Dallas County in Texas, where Jane Roe resided. She was challenging a Texas law making abortion illegal except by a doctor's orders to save a woman's life. The Court arrived at its decision by concluding that the issue of abortion and abortion rights falls under the  right to privacy . The Court held that a right to privacy existed and included the right to have an abortion. The court found that a mother had a right to abortion until viability, a point to be determined by the abortion doctor. After viability a woman can obtain an abortion for health reasons, which the Court defined broadly to include psychological well-being in the decision  Doe v. Bolton , delivered concurrently.


From the 1970s, and the spread of  second-wave feminism , abortion and  reproductive rights  became unifying issues among various  women's rights  groups in Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, Britain, Norway, France, Germany, and Italy. [ 26 ]


In 2015, in the wake of the House of Representatives' vote to defund  Planned Parenthood ,  Lindy West , Amelia Bonow and Kimberly Morrison launched  ShoutYourAbortion  to "remind supporters and critics alike abortion is a legal right to anyone who wants or needs it". [ 27 ]  The women encouraged other women to share positive abortion experiences online using the hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion in order to "denounce the stigma surrounding abortion." [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ]


In 2019, the  You Know Me movement  started as a response to the successful 2019 passage of  fetal heartbeat bills  in  five states  in the  United States , most notably the passing of  anti-abortion laws  in  Georgia  ( House Bill 381 ), [ 31 ] [ 32 ] [ 33 ] [ 34 ]   Ohio  ( House Bill 68 ) [ 35 ] [ 36 ] [ 37 ]  and  Alabama  ( House Bill 314 ). [ 38 ] [ 39 ] [ 40 ]  This movement was started off by actress Busy Philipps because she had previously had an abortion when she was a teen. The actress and many others believe that it is important for women to speak up and shift the narrative, especially because abortion is such a taboo subject.


In the mid-19th century, concerns around abortion only consisted of the danger of a woman being poisoned and risking her health, not because of religion, ethics, or diplomacy. Ending a pregnancy before the fetus began movement, or "post-quickening" was only a wrongdoing, not a crime. The laws that were against abortions post-quickening removals were put in place to protect the well-being of the women that were pregnant, not the fetal life. It was more common for women to die during early terminations due to the usage of pre-owned instruments as opposed to natural abortifacients. Some women who engaged in quickening abortions were not prosecuted because there was no evidence and quickening was hard to prove.


Between 1900 and 1965, there were not any anti-abortion movements or rallies because states had already passed a law banning abortions at all levels included the prescription of drugs or undergoing procedures. The only exception for a woman to proceed with an abortion without worrying about breaking any anti-abortion laws is if a licensed physician were to prove that the abortion was for the protection of the mother's life. Abortion care providers and women who had obtained an abortion were pestered by courts and prosecutors.


In the 1960s, some states began to request changes, around the abortion law, from their states. In 1959, a group of experts set up a model enactment that supported the advancement of the fetus removal laws that were put in place. These experts suggested that the abortion laws should exempt women that were sexually assaulted, whose babies well-being were to be questioned and whose babies that were to be born out of its true, natural or original state. The Abortion Rights Movement became a cultural shift in The United States about the intentions of reproduction and abortion.


In 1973, the  Roe v. Wade  verdict changed the abortion laws altogether, making abortion legal. Many physicians and healthcare professionals jeopardized their medical licenses, risked being put in prison and fined by the state because they wanted to continue to provide abortions.


There were more than 1,000 abortion laws passed and enacted between 2011 and 2019 that limited access to abortion procedures. Some of these laws forbid a woman getting an abortion past a certain gestational age and was also based on race and specific pregnancy conditions. Other laws were established that ban particular abortion methods.


Targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) was put in place to target abortion clinics by demanding unnecessary requirements that made it hard for women to get an abortion. Opponents of abortion rights claim that these requirements are for the safety of the mother and child, but that has not been scientifically proven. TRAP has placed limitations on abortion facilities to make it more difficult for them to provide abortion services that will essentially force them to not provide abortion services at all. TRAP policies have been put in place by 26 states as of 2020. During the pandemic, numerous states prohibited non-essential medical procedures, including abortion services. Policymakers in twelve states saw this as a chance to certify abortion as non-essential, therefore ending services.


South Africa  allows abortion on demand under its  Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act . Most African nations, however, have abortion bans except in cases where the woman's life or health is at risk. A number of abortion-rights international organizations have made altering abortion laws and expanding  family planning  services in  sub-Saharan Africa  and the  developing world  a top priority.


To classify the reasons as to which abortion should be legally permitted, countries in Africa fall within six categories: abortion is not permitted at all, abortion is only allowed to save the life of a woman, abortion can be performed if a woman's physical health is at risk, to save the mental health of a woman, to save or preserve socioeconomic reasons and abortions are allowed without any restrictions. But there are only five countries in Africa where abortion is legal and those countries are Cape Verde, South Africa, Tunisia, Mozambique and Saõ Tome & Principe. [ 41 ]


During 2010–2014. 8.2 million abortions were performed each year in Africa. This number increased drastically compared to the 4.6 million abortions that were performed during 1990–1994. But this increased number of abortions is due to the increase of women that are reproducing at a young age. [ 42 ]  Approximately 93% of women within their reproductive age live in countries that have very restrictive abortion laws and abortion is only legal in 10 out of 54 African countries, leading to fewer women not being able to obtain a safe procedure. The World Health Organization only recommends trained personnel when performing induced abortions but not many women in Africa have access to trained professionals who are able to provide them with the best service to decrease the number of complications due to abortion. Approximately 1.6 million women are treated for abortion-related complications and only one in four abortions in Africa are safe. Africa has the highest number of deaths that are related to abortion and this is due to the most common complication of abortion that consist of excessive blood loss and an incomplete abortion that can lead to an infection. [ 42 ]


During 2010–2014, 36 million abortions were performed in Asia. Majority of abortions occurred in Central and South Asia at a rate of 16 million in India and Asia and 13 million in China alone. [ 43 ]


Although the abortions performed in Asia are not known, there is an estimated 4.6 million women who are treated because they have complications due to the performance of an unsafe abortion. The major complication of abortion is an incomplete abortion where a woman can experience an immoderate amount of blood loss and can develop an infection. Less common complications of abortion include a woman going into septic shock, damaging the internal organs and causing the peritoneum to be inflamed, all due to the unclean and unsterilized instruments that are being used doing the procedure. Untreated complications from abortions can leave women to experience negative health consequences for life that include infertility, chronic pain, inflammation of the reproductive organs and pelvic inflammatory disease. [ 41 ]  Unsafe abortions go deeper than just a woman's health but they lead to reduced productivity for women increased costs to an already struggling family. Although it is not completely known, a drug known as misoprostol is used to perform abortions in Asian countries and evidence shows that the sales of this drug has increased in Asia over the course of years. [ 41 ]


On record, out of all the pregnancies in Asia, 27 percent of them end in abortions. This is the reason for the Asia Safe Abortion Partnership (ASAP).  [ 43 ]  This program was formed to increase the accessibility to safe and legal abortions and health care that is needed after any abortion service. 50 countries occupy Asia and out of those 50, 17 countries do not have a restriction on abortions excluding, gestational limits and permission from a spouse or parent. ASAP satisfies the demand for safe and accessible abortions through educational and advocacy. By grouping with other countries to promote advocacy networks, ASAP has created a worldwide and generational feminist power that advocates for women's abortion rights, autonomy and dignity. Anti-abortion groups have tried their best to discriminate the reproductive autonomy of women but ASAP has members spread across 20 countries that promote the women's movement for abortion rights, laws, and access.


Even though abortion is legal in Asia, that does not mean that women always have access or adequate health care during these times. For example, abortions in India have been legal since 1951 but women who are particularly poor or marginalized make up 50% of unsafe abortions. Women in the Philippines are more than likely to undergo an unsafe and unsanitary abortion causing around 1,000 death annually due to abortion complications. [ 43 ]  The Philippines along with Iraq and Laos are the countries that has not made abortion legal, excluding legal exceptions, therefore they have not made it available to where women can have admissions to legal abortions that are safe for them and their bodies. Countries such as Afghanistan, Thailand, China and Lebanon, have all been impacted by the determined long-term feminist motion by ASAP for women's abortion rights.


This work ranges from workshops, journalist, advocates to menstrual management, violence against women, and issues surrounded around unplanned pregnancies. "Youth champions" were created by ASAP to share the knowledge that they have learned to their peers about sexual activity, abortions, women's rights and reproductions, reproductive health, and the abortion rights movement in general. Youth champions have been trained directly by members of ASAP and have been very successful in their training that include issues around disability rights that can widen the interrelation research of the women's forces to help assimilate reproductive and sexual rights within the human rights movement. [ 43 ]


Chapter XXIX of the  Penal Code of Japan  makes abortion illegal in Japan. However, the  Maternal Health Protection Law  allows  approved doctors  to practice abortion with the consent of the mother and her spouse, if the pregnancy has  resulted from rape , or if the continuation of the pregnancy may severely endanger the maternal health because of physical reasons or economic reasons. Other people, including the mother herself, trying to abort the  fetus  can be punished by the law. People trying to practice abortion without the consent of the woman can also be punished, including the doctors.


Abortion has been illegal in South Korea since 1953 but on April 11, 2019, South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled the abortion ban unconstitutional and called for the law to be amended. [ 44 ]  The law stands until the end of 2020. The Constitutional Court has taken into consideration abortion-rights cases by women because they find the abortion ban as unconstitutional. To help support the legalization of abortion in South Korea, thousands of advocates compiled a petition for the Blue House to consider lifting the ban. Due to the abortion ban, this has led to many dangerous self-induced abortions and other illegal practices of abortion that needs more attention. This is why there are advocates challenging the law to put into perspective the negative factors this abortion ban brings. By making abortion illegal in South Korea, this also creates an issue when it comes to women's rights and their own rights to their bodies. As a result, many women's advocate groups were created and acted together to protest against the abortion ban law. [ 45 ]


Global Day of Action is a form of protest that advocates to make a change and bring more awareness to global warming. During this protest, a group of feminist Korean advocates called, "The Joint Action for Reproductive Justice" connected with one another to promote concerns that requires more attention and needs a quick change such as making abortion legal. [ 46 ]  By combining different advocate groups that serves different purposes and their own goals they want to achieve into one event, it helps promote all the different aspects of reality that needs to change.


Abortion-rights Advocate Groups:


Russia


In 1920, under the leadership of  Vladimir Lenin ,  Russia  became the first country in the world to legally permit abortion, no matter the circumstances. [ 47 ]


But in the 20th century, the laws surrounding abortion were repeatedly modified between the years of 1936 and 1955. According to data from the United Nations in 2010, Russia had the highest rates of abortion per woman of reproduction. Results from the abortion rates of China and Russia were compared and out of a population of 1.3 billion people, China only reported 13 million abortions, a huge difference when contrasted to the population in Russia of 143 million people with 1.2 million abortions. [ citation needed ]  Since abortion was illegal in the Russian Empire, it was not recognized in the Domostroi. The Domostroi was a set of tasks that were to be followed that were structured around rules, instructions surrounded by religious, social and domestic issues that were centered within the Russian Society. These rules enforced respect and compliance to God and the church.


Different rulers had different views about abortion. During Romanov's reign, abortion was illegal, frowned up, and if a woman were to go through with an abortion, her punishment was death. But after Romanov's reign ended, Peter the Great lifted the punishment of death for abortions but it was still considered a serious issue in 1917. Before the punishment for abortions was death, according to the Russian Penal Code that dates back to 1462–1463, women were dispossessed of their basic human and civil rights and banned from the city or they were forced into hard labor. [ 48 ]


These harsh treatments and illegality surrounded around abortion still did not stop women from pursuing abortions. "Black Market" abortions were known as unauthorized and discreet procedures done by women who have experience in childbirth. These women were known as older women that were midwives and rural midwives, respectfully. Although these women were not abortion care providers, they were the only accessible obstetric personnel that women could go to without facing the harsh punishment and consequences forced upon by the Russian Society. Since adequate medical care was not provided for women looking to terminate their pregnancy, midwives and nurses from villages were trained to care for these women the best to their ability, but of course with illegal abortions there are always repercussions.


During the Soviet period in Russia, abortions ranked as the highest rates world-wide. After the Soviet period ended inn the Russian union, abortion numbers decreased with further enforced sex education courses and use of contraceptive birth control.


Abortion was illegal in the  Republic of Ireland  except when the woman's life was threatened by a medical condition (including risk of suicide), since  a 1983 referendum (aka 8th Amendment)  amended the  constitution . Subsequent  amendments  in 1992 (after the  X Case ) – the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  – guaranteed the right to travel abroad (for abortions) and to distribute and obtain information of "lawful services" available in other countries. Two proposals to remove  suicide  risk as a ground for abortion were rejected by the people,  in a referendum in 1992  and  in 2002 . Thousands of women get around the ban by privately traveling to the other European countries (typically Britain and the Netherlands) to undergo termination, [ 49 ]  or by ordering  abortion pills  from  Women on Web  online and taking them in Ireland. [ 50 ]


Sinn Féin , the  Labour Party ,  Social Democrats ,  Green Party ,  Communist Party ,  Socialist Party  and  Irish Republican Socialist Party  have made their official policies to support abortion rights. Mainstream center-right parties such as  Fianna Fáil  and  Fine Gael  do not have official policies on abortion rights but allow their members to take a  conscience vote  in support of abortion in limited circumstances. [ 51 ] [ 52 ] [ 53 ]   Aontú , founded in January 2019, is firmly anti-abortionist and seeks to "protect the right to life". [ 54 ]


After the  death of Savita Halappanavar  in 2012, there has been a renewed campaign to  repeal the eighth amendment  and legalize abortion. As of January 2017 [update] , the Irish government has set up a  citizens assembly  to look at the issue. Their proposals, broadly supported by a cross-party Oireachtas committee, include repeal of the 8th Amendment, unrestricted access to abortion for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and no-term limits for special cases of fatal foetal abnormalities, rape and incest. [ 55 ] [ 56 ]


A referendum on the repealing of the 8th Amendment was held on May 25, 2018.  Together for Yes , a cross-society group formed from the Coalition to Repeal the 8th Amendment, the  National Women's Council of Ireland  and the  Abortion Rights Campaign , were the official campaign group for repeal in the referendum. [ 57 ]  Activists utilized social media to bring the narrative of women's voices to the forefront of the campaign, making clear that the Eighth Amendment was dangerous for pregnant women to try and encourage voters to vote in favor of repeal. [ 58 ]  The 67% majority in favor of repeal is a testament to these stories and the women who braved the public Twitter sphere to change the law around women's reproductive lives. [ 59 ]


Despite being part of the  United Kingdom , abortion remained illegal in Northern Ireland, except in cases when the woman is threatened by a medical condition, physical or mental, until 2019. [ 60 ] [ 61 ]  Women seeking abortions had to travel to England. In October 2019, abortion up to 12 weeks was legalized, to begin in April 2020, but remains near-unobtainable. [ 62 ]


Poland initially held abortion to be legal in 1958 by the communist government, but was later banned after restoration of democracy in 1989.


Currently, abortion is illegal in all cases except for rape or when the fetus or mother is in fatal conditions. [ 63 ]  The wide spread of  Catholic Church in Poland  within the country has made abortion socially 'unacceptable'. [ 64 ]   The Pope  has had major influence on the acceptance of abortion within Poland. [ 65 ]  Several landmark court cases have had substantial influence on the current status of abortion, including  Tysiac v Poland . [ 66 ] [ 67 ]


In the United Kingdom, the  Abortion Act 1967  legalized abortion on a wide number of grounds, except in  Northern Ireland . In Great Britain, the law states that pregnancy may be terminated up to 24 weeks [ 68 ]  if it:


However, the criterion of risk to mental and physical health is applied broadly, and  de facto  makes abortion available on demand, [ 70 ]  though this still requires the consent of two  National Health Service  doctors. Abortions in Great Britain are provided at no out-of-pocket cost to the patient by the NHS.


The  Labour Party  and the  Liberal Democrats  are predominantly pro-abortion-rights parties, though with significant minorities in each either holding more restrictive definitions of the right to choose, or subscribing to an anti-abortion analysis. The  Conservative Party  is more evenly split between both camps and its former leader,  David Cameron , supports abortion on demand in the early stages of pregnancy. [ 71 ]


Abortion laws in the Middle East reflect variation of opinions. Some countries permit abortion in cases involving a pregnant woman's well-being, fetal impairment, and rape. Abortion was widely practiced during the colonial period, and allowed a longer term termination. By the 19th century, progressive interpretations cut the abortion time limit down to the first trimester. However, a 2008 World Health Organization report estimated 900,000 unsafe abortion occurred each year in the Middle Eastern and Northern Africa regions. While many countries have decriminalized abortions and made it more accessible, there are still a few remaining countries yet to do so. [ 72 ]


Abortion was first legalized in 1978. [ 73 ]  In April 2005, the  Iranian Parliament  approved a new bill easing the conditions by also allowing abortion in certain cases when the fetus shows signs of handicap. [ 74 ] [ 75 ]


Legal abortion is now allowed if the mother's life is in danger, and also in cases of fetal abnormalities that makes it not viable after birth (such as anencephaly) or produce difficulties for mother to take care of it after birth, such as major  thalassemia  or bilateral polycystic kidney disease.


Abortion-rights advocacy in the United States is centered in the  United States abortion-rights movement .


Across the world, there are only four countries in which abortion is completely banned. Honduras, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and El Salvador have yet to legalize abortions, even if it is for the woman's health and safety. [ 76 ]  Since 2018, there have been no changes in the laws regarding abortion in these Latin-America countries. The Ministry of Public Health collected data that showed nearly half the pregnancies in the Dominican Republic alone are unwanted or unplanned; often stemming from incest or rape. Women in South America continue fighting for their rights and protection, but there has been no recent call of action. [ 77 ]


Because Argentina has been very restrictive against abortion, reliable reporting on abortion rates is unavailable. Argentina has long been a  strongly Catholic country , and protesters seeking legalized abortion in 2013 directed anger toward the Catholic Church. [ 78 ]


On December 11, 2020, after a 20-hour debate, the  Chamber of Deputies  voted 131 to 117 (6 abstentions) to approve a bill legalizing abortion up to 14 weeks after conception. The bill's passing resulted in large-scale celebrations by abortion rights activists who had long campaigned for it. [ 79 ]  The  Argentine Senate  approved the bill 38–29 on December 29, and it is expected to be signed by President  Alberto Fernandez . Argentina will become the fourth Latin American country to legalize abortion. [ 80 ]


Anti-abortion movements , also self-styled as  pro-life movements , are involved in the  abortion debate  advocating against the practice of  abortion  and its  legality . Many anti-abortion movements began as  countermovements  in response to the legalization of  elective abortions .


In Europe, abortion law varies by country, and has been legalized through parliamentary acts in some countries, and constitutionally banned or heavily restricted in others. In Western Europe this has had the effect at once of both more closely regulating the use of abortion, and at the same time mediating and reducing the impact anti-abortion campaigns have had on the law. [ 1 ]


The first specifically anti-abortion organization in France, Laissez-les-vivre-SOS futures mères, was created in 1971 during the debate that was to lead to the  Veil Law  in 1975. Its main spokesman was the geneticist  Jérôme Lejeune . Since 2005, the French anti-abortion movement has organized an annual  March for Life . [ 2 ]


The 1920 abortion laws of France have not been entirely repealed leading to ambiguity in the nation's policies. [ 3 ]  By 1975,  Simone Veil , the minister for health, introduced legislation that specifically in cases of distress "tolerated" abortion up to ten weeks. [ 4 ]  Abortions after this date are only cleared by the government if the pregnancy endangers the health of the woman or will result in the birth of a child with a severe and incurable disease. [ 4 ]  After twelve weeks, abortion, except for "therapeutic abortion, under the terms of Article 317 of the Criminal Code, is a crime, punishable by 6 months to 10 years in prison, a fine of between 1800 and 250,000 Francs, and loss of professional license." [ 4 ]


Catholics and right-wing political groups continue to protest abortion. The far-right party  National Rally (formerly National Front) , has attempted unsuccessfully to decrease funding for abortions. [ 3 ]


There are several major anti-abortion groups in the  Republic of Ireland , including  Pro Life Campaign ,  Youth Defence  and the  Iona Institute . The  Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland  (2018) provided for legal abortion in Ireland, but several anti-abortion parties still campaign, including  Aontú  and the  National Party . [ 5 ] [ 6 ]


In  Liechtenstein , an application to legalize abortions was rejected by a slim majority in  a referendum in 2011 . The opponents, which included  Prince Alois , got 500 votes more and eventually settled at 52.3 percent compared with 47.7 percent. [ 7 ]


Prince Alois had announced the use of his veto in advance if necessary to prevent the introduction of abortion. [ 8 ]


Abortion is legal in Russia as an elective procedure up to the 12th week of pregnancy, and in special circumstances at later stages. [ 9 ]  The abortion issue gained renewed attention in 2011 in a debate that  The New York Times  says "has begun to sound like the debate in the  United States ". [ 10 ]  Parliament passed and  President   Dmitri Medvedev  signed several restrictions on abortion into law to combat "a falling birthrate" and " plunging population ". [ 10 ]  The restrictions include requiring abortion providers to devote 10% of advertising costs to describing the dangers of abortion to a woman's health and make it illegal to describe abortion as a safe medical procedure. Medvedev's wife  Svetlana Medvedeva  has taken up the anti-abortion cause in Russia in a weeklong national campaign against abortion called "Give Me Life!" and a "Day of Family, Love and Faithfulness" by her Foundation for Social and Cultural Initiatives in conjunction with the  Russian Orthodox Church . [ 10 ]


In  Spain , over one million demonstrators took part in a march in  Madrid  in October 2009 to protest plans by the government of  José Luis Zapatero  to legalize elective abortions and eliminate parental consent restrictions. [ 11 ]


In the United Kingdom, the most prominent anti-abortion organization is the  Society for the Protection of Unborn Children . It was formed at the time of the passage of the  1967 Abortion Act  which liberalized abortion law. The group campaigns against abortion, often using questionable claims, [ 12 ]  and supports protests at pregnancy clinics. [ 13 ]  The Abortion Act of 1967 had a significant effect in Britain (excluding Northern Ireland). The Act states that if at least two doctors deem the reasons for abortion to be in alignment with the Act, it can legally be performed. This still means that the punishment for women who obtain abortions contrary to the Act are faced with potential life imprisonment. Doctors too can be prosecuted if they are found administering abortions without reasonable cause. [ 14 ]  The Abortion Act of 1967 did not apply in  Northern Ireland . Women living there who sought abortions either had to travel to Britain to receive an abortion or potentially face criminal charges for purchasing abortion pills illegally. [ 14 ]


To this day, anti-abortion activists routinely stand outside many abortion clinics; their goal is to discourage women from entering the clinics. This is through two processes, known as "prayer vigils", which are sometimes quiet and other times said aloud to actively dissuade; and "pavement counseling", where activists approach women entering clinics in order to persuade them to continue with their pregnancies. This is a practice held in low regard by many, as it causes anxiety and distress. [ 14 ]


In  Israel , the major anti-abortion organization is  Efrat . [ 15 ]  Efrat activists primarily raise funds to relieve the "financial and  social pressures " on pregnant women so that they will not terminate their pregnancies. However, this activity is only carried out in the Jewish sector in Israeli society, as Efrat officially views abortion among Jews as a demographic threat to the Jewish people. [ 16 ]


In the 19th century United States,  Anthony Comstock  launched an 'anti-vice crusade' that included opposition to contraception and abortion. He successfully got the  US congress  to pass laws later known as the  Comstock laws  that included provisions that made it illegal to send materials used for abortion through the mail. [ 17 ]  These laws have been referenced by modern anti-abortion campaigners in the US and cited in court cases to stop the mailing of abortion medication. [ 18 ]


The  United States anti-abortion movement  formed as a response to the landmark 1973  Roe v. Wade   and  Doe v. Bolton   U.S. Supreme Court  decisions with many  anti-abortion organizations  having emerged since then. There is also a smaller  consistent life ethic  movement, favoring a philosophy which opposes all forms of killing, including abortion,  war ,  euthanasia , and  capital punishment .


The current movement is in part a continuation of previous debates on abortion that led to the practice being banned in all states by the late 19th century. The initial movement was led by  physicians , but also included politicians and  feminists . Among physicians, advances in medical knowledge played a significant role in influencing anti-abortion opinion.  Quickening , which had previously been thought to be the point at which the soul entered a human was discovered to be a relatively unimportant step in fetal development, caused many medical professionals to rethink their positions on early term abortions. [ 19 ]  Ideologically, the  Hippocratic Oath  and the medical mentality of that age to defend the  value of human life  as an absolute also played a significant role in molding opinions about abortion. [ 19 ]


Meanwhile, many 19th-century feminists tended to regard abortion as an undesirable necessity forced upon women by thoughtless men. [ 20 ]  The "free love" wing of the feminist movement refused to advocate abortion and treated the practice as an example of the hideous extremes to which modern marriage was driving women. [ 21 ]   Marital rape  and the seduction of unmarried women were societal ills which feminists believed caused the need to abort, as men did not respect women's right to  abstinence . [ 21 ]


Anti-abortion groups like  Students for Life of America  and  Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America  are at times associated with conservatism. [ citation needed ]  Other groups, such as  Focus on the Family , are considered a part of the  Christian right . [ 22 ]  They call themselves "pro-life" because they are often united in their belief that a  fetus  is a person that has legal rights. Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision  Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization , some of these organizations have turned their attention to banning abortions at the state and local level and asking the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize fetal personhood under the Constitution. [ 23 ]


A Conservative MP,  Cathay Wagantall , introduced a bill in 2020 seeking to ban abortions for the purpose of choosing a child's sex. [ 24 ]  Abortion in Canada is legal at all stages of pregnancy and funded in part by the  Canada Health Act . [ 25 ]  In 2013, the Conservative prime minister,  Stephen Harper , barred the members of Parliament from discussing the matter in the Commons. Harper's move was linked to his repeated declarations that he wouldn't allow the abortion debate to be re-opened. [ 24 ]  Since the 1980s, at least forty-three private member bills that are against abortion have been sent to the House of Commons yet none of them have been passed. [ 3 ]  Canadian anti-abortion discourse increasingly "aims at changing cultural values more than legislation; is explicitly framed as 'pro-woman'; largely avoids appealing to religious grounds; and relies on a new 'abortion-harms-women' argument that has supplanted and transformed traditional fetal personhood arguments". [ 26 ]


Since 1998, Catholics and allies have held national anti-abortion March for Life rallies at  Parliament Hill . [ 26 ] [ 27 ]  Two have gathered over 10,000 protesters. In addition to the national protests, anti-abortionists protest abortion clinics across the nation in attempts to stop abortions from continuing. [ 26 ]


A number of anti-abortion organizations exist in  Australia , including Cherish Life,  Right to Life Australia , and  Australian Christian Lobby . These organizations undertake various campaigning activities, including political campaign fundraising. [ 28 ]


A large portion of Australian law surrounding abortion was originally derived from the British law. [ 29 ]  Until 1967, British law stated that "an induced abortion is unlawful in all situations save the (probable) exception of situations where it is necessary to save the life of the mother." [ 30 ]  Australia partook of this law until Britain changed it in 1967 towards a more liberal standpoint. [ 30 ]


All states and territories, except Western Australia, have laws prohibiting anti-abortion campaigners from harassing visitors and staff of abortion clinics by setting exclusion zones around abortion clinics.


In  Evangelical Christianity , international organizations like  Focus on the Family  are involved in the anti-abortion movement. [ 31 ]


In 2023, in his book  Rethinking Life: Embracing the Sacredness of Every Person ,  Shane Claiborne , leader of the  Red-Letter Christians , calls for expanding the Christian definition of the "pro-life" movement to issues other than the fight against abortion, such as  gun violence ,  poverty , the  death penalty  and openness to  immigration .  [ 32 ]


The  beginning of human personhood  is the moment when a  human  is first recognized as a  person . There are differences of opinion about the precise time when human  personhood  begins and the nature of that status. The issue arises in a number of fields, including science, religion, philosophy, and law, and is most acute in  debates about abortion ,  stem cell research ,  reproductive rights , and  fetal rights .


Traditionally, the concept of personhood has included the concept of the  soul , a  metaphysical  concept of a non-corporeal or extra-corporeal dimension of  human beings . In modernity, the concepts of  subjectivity  and  intersubjectivity , personhood,  mind , and  self  have come to encompass a number of aspects of humanness that were previously considered to be characteristics of the soul. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]  One question about the beginning of human personhood has been the moment at which  soul enters the body . An alternative question, both historically and in modern times,  may be at what point does the developing individual acquire personhood or selfhood. [ a ]


Issues relating to the question of the beginning of human personhood include the legal status, bodily integrity, and subjectivity of mothers, [ 3 ]  and the philosophical concept of  natality , i.e. "the distinctively human capacity to initiate a new beginning" that a new human life embodies. [ 4 ] [ 5 ]


Discussions of the beginning of personhood may be framed in terms of the moment life begins.  James McGrath  and others argue the beginning of personhood begins is not interchangeable with the beginning of a human life. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] : 845   According to  Jed Rubenfeld , the terms  human being  and  person  are not necessarily synonymous. [ 7 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ]


Embryologist  Scott Gilbert  states:


There is no consensus among biologists as to when personhood begins. Different biologists have proposed that personhood begins at such events as fertilization, gastrulation, the acquisition of an EEG pattern, and birth. Other scientists claim that the acquisition of personhood is gradual or that the question of personhood is not a biological one. [ 12 ]


Fertilization is the fusing of the  gametes ; a  sperm  cell and an  ovum  (egg cell) fuse to form a single-cell  zygote . This is the beginning of the  diploid  phase of the human life cycle after two genetically unique  haploid  cells created via  meiosis  and  chromosomal translocation  combine their DNA and begin to develop into a multi-cellular organism. The zygote is genetically distinct from each of its parents.


The process of fertilization lasts around 24 hours. [ 13 ]  Many zygotes die shortly after fertilization, most often due to chromosomal abnormalities. [ 14 ]  Estimates of the percentage that die prior to  implantation  vary from 10% to 70%. [ 15 ]  Those that fail to implant in the  uterine wall  are sloughed off with the endometrial lining during menstruation. [ 13 ] [ 16 ]  Of those that implant, many are miscarried, often without the woman knowing she was pregnant; estimates of post-implantation loss also vary considerably. [ 17 ] [ 18 ]  As  cleavage  (cellular division) occurs, a single zygote may split into two or three zygotes, resulting in  monozygotic ("identical") twins  or triplets. At other times, two individually fertilized zygotes may fuse into one zygote, which is known as a  chimera . [ 13 ]


According to some commentators, life begins at the point of fertilization.  Charles E. Rice  said  Bradley M. Patten  in  Foundations of Embryology  wrote the union of the sperm and the ovum "initiates the life of a new individual", beginning "a new individual life history". [ 5 ] : 1070   Rice also quotes  Herbert Ratner  in  A Doctor Talks About Abortion : "It is now of unquestionable certainty that a human being comes into existence precisely at the moment when the sperm combines with the egg". [ 5 ] : 1071   Ratner said this knowledge comes from the study of  genetics . At fertilization, all of the genetic characteristics, such as the color of the eyes, "are laid down determinatively". [ citation needed ]  In the college text book  Psychology and Life ,  Floyd L. Ruch  wrote: "At the moment of conception, two living germ cells (sperm and egg) unite to produce an individual". [ 19 ]   James C. G. Conniff  wrote: "At that moment conception takes place and, scientists generally agree, a new life begins—silent, secret, unknown". [ 20 ]


In his book  Aborting America ,  Bernard Nathanson  said  implantation  should be considered the point at which life begins. He stated: "Biochemically, this is when alpha [the unborn human] announces its presence as part of the human community by means of its hormonal messages, which we now have the technology to receive. We also know biochemically that it is an independent organism distinct from the mother." [ 21 ]  In their book  When Does Human Life Begin? , [ 22 ]  John L. Merritt and his son J. Lawrence Meritt II said if "the breath of life" (Genesis 2:7) is oxygen, then a  blastocyst  starts taking in the breath of life from the mother's blood at the moment it successfully implants in her womb, which usually happens nine days after fertilization. [ citation needed ]  According to  Goldie Milgram , Jewish tradition interprets the biblical phrase "breath of life" as the Earth's atmosphere, and that life starts when the baby's head emerges from the mother's body and takes its first breath of air. [ 23 ]


Non-conjoined monozygotic twins can form up to day 14 of embryonic development; when twinning occurs after 14 days, the twins will likely be conjoined. [ 24 ]  Gastrulation occurs at 14 days and is the stage at which non-conjoined twins can no longer form. According to Bonnie and Vern Bulloch, an early embryo cannot be a person because "If every person is an individual, one cannot be divided from oneself". [ 25 ]   Norman Ford  stated: "the evidence would seem to indicate not that there is no individual at conception, but that there is at least one and possibly more". [ citation needed ]  He went on to support the idea, similar to processes in other species, one twin could be the parent of the other  asexually .  Theodore Hall  agreed with the plausibility of this explanation, saying: "We wonder if the biological process in twinning isn't simply another example of how nature reproduces from other individuals without destroying that person's or persons' individuality". [ 26 ]  Gilbert quotes bioethicist Robert Green as saying: "Only at gastrulation can we say that the lengthy process of individuation is complete". [ 12 ] : 3


According to D.G. Jones, there are two types of brain death—whole brain death, the irreversible cessation of function of both the  brain stem  and higher parts of the brain—and higher-brain death, destruction of the cerebral hemispheres alone, with possible retention of brain stem function; and analogously, there are two types of brain birth based on their reversal—brain-stem birth at the first appearance of brain waves in lower brain (brain stem) at 6–8 weeks of gestation, and higher-brain birth at the first appearance of brain waves in higher brain ( cerebral cortex ) at 22–24 weeks of gestation. [ 27 ] [ 28 ]


The perspective of  Planned Parenthood , a major abortion provider in the United States, is based on fetal viability. It stated:


Until the fetus is viable, any rights granted to it may come at the expense of the pregnant woman, simply because the fetus cannot survive except within the woman's body. Upon viability, the pregnancy can be terminated, as by a  c-section  or  induced labor , with the fetus surviving to become a newborn infant. Several groups believe that abortion before viability is acceptable, but is unacceptable after." [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ]


In some countries, early abortions are legal in all circumstances but  late-term abortions  are limited to circumstances in which there is a clear medical need. [ citation needed ]  There is no sharp limit of development, gestational age, or weight at which a human fetus automatically becomes viable. [ 32 ]  A 2013 study said: "While only a small proportion of births occur before 24 completed weeks of gestation (about 1 per 1000), survival is rare and most of them are either fetal deaths or live births followed by a neonatal death". [ 33 ]


Some commentators believe while the fetus is still inside the mother's body, whether it is viable or not, it has no rights of its own. [ 9 ]  In some interpretations of Jewish law, life begins at first breath; [ 23 ] [ 34 ]  other interpretations state: "the unborn child, although a living being, does not yet have a status of personhood equal to its mother". [ 35 ]


Some biologists say the beginning of personhood is not a question they can answer. [ 12 ]  In 1981, Senator  Jesse Helms  introduced a Human Life Bill that said: "Congress finds that present day scientific evidence indicates a significant likelihood that actual human life exists at conception" and that 'person' shall include all human life as defined herein", [ 8 ] : 2   provoking a response from many scientists and medical professionals. The  National Academy of Sciences  passed a resolution saying the question of whether human life exists from conception was "a question to which science can provide no answer ... Defining the time at which the developing embryo becomes a person must remain a matter of moral or religious value". [ 8 ] : 74  [ 36 ]  A group of over 1,200 scientists signed a petition that said: "As scientists we agree that science cannot define the moment at which 'actual human life' begins and consider that the attempt to reach a scientific resolution of this question represents a misuse and misunderstanding of science". [ 37 ]  A series of Senate hearings were also held, and many scientists and medical professionals testified. Some said life begins at conception but  others said this was not a question answerable by science.  Lewis Thomas  said: "whether the very first single cell that comes into existence after fertilization of an ovum represents in itself a human life, is not in any real sense a scientific question and cannot be answered by scientists ... it can be argued by philosophers and theologians, but it lies beyond the reach of science." [ 28 ] [ 8 ] : 73    Frederick Robbins  said: "the question of when life begins is not in essence, a scientific matter. Rather it is one that evokes complicated ethical and value judgments. In fact, I doubt whether the health sciences can shed much light on such moral questions." [ 8 ] : 51


There are also other ideas of when personhood is achieved:


Human personhood may also be seen as a work in progress, with the beginning being a  continuum  rather than a moment in time. [ 38 ]


Philosophers such as  Aquinas  use the concept of  individuation . They say abortion is not permissible from the point at which individual human identity is realized. According to  Anthony Kenny , this can be derived from everyday beliefs and language, and one can say: "if my mother had an abortion six months into her pregnancy, she would have killed me", then one can reasonably infer at six months, the  me  in question would have been an existing person with a valid claim to life. Because division of the zygote into twins through the process of  monozygotic twinning  can occur until the fourteenth day of pregnancy, Kenny says individual identity is obtained at this point and thus abortion is not permissible after two weeks. [ 39 ]


Quickening  is the moment the pregnant woman starts to feel the fetus's movement in the  uterus . [ 40 ]  The word  quick  originally meant alive, [ 41 ]  and  quicken  means to grant life. [ 42 ]  Women who have previously given birth have more-relaxed uterine muscles that are more sensitive to fetal motion during subsequent pregnancies. For them, fetal motion can sometimes be felt as early as 14 weeks, [ 43 ]  although it is usually around 18 weeks. A woman who has not previously given birth typically feels fetal movements at about 20–21 weeks. [ 44 ]  Some early abortion laws were based around this standard. Although not commonly in use today, the quickening standard for personhood was historically used in  England , [ 45 ]  and other jurisdictions that based their legal systems on the  English legal system , like the  U.S.  states of  Connecticut  and  New York . [ 46 ] [ 47 ]


Historically, children were not always seen as people.  Infanticide  was practiced in many historical cultures. [ 48 ]  Until the mid 19th century, U.S. law was ambiguous about the personhood of children under 18. [ 49 ]


Ideas about the beginnings of human life and personhood begins have varied among social contexts, and have changed with shifts in ethical and religious beliefs, sometimes as a result of advances in scientific knowledge; in general, they have developed in parallel with attitudes to abortion [ 50 ]  and the use of infanticide for reproductive control. Because human development is continuous, identifying a time at which a human is a person could lead to an instance of the  Sorites paradox , also known as  the paradox of the heap . [ 51 ]


According to  Neil Postman , in pre-modern societies, the lives of children were not regarded as unique or valuable in the same way as they are in modern societies, in part as a result of high infant mortality. When childhood began to develop its own distinctive features, including graded schools to teach literacy, other skills, and cultural knowledge, this view changed. According to Postman: "the custom of celebrating a child's birthday did not exist in America throughout most of the eighteenth century, and, in fact, the precise marking of a child's age in any way is a relatively recent cultural habit, no more than two hundred years old". [ 52 ]


Ancient writers held diverse views on the beginning of personhood, which they understood as the soul's entry into or development in the human body. In  Panpsychism in the West ,  David Skrbina  noted the kinds of soul the early Greeks envisioned. [ 53 ]   Aristotle  developed a theory of progressive ensoulment; in his text  On the Generation of Animals , he said the soul first develops a vegetative soul, then animal, and finally human, adding abortions were permissible early in pregnancy before certain biological processes began. He believed the female substance was passive, the male substance was active, and that time was required for the male substance to "animate" the whole. [ 54 ]


According to  Hinduism Today ,  Vedic literature  states the soul enters the body at conception. [ 55 ]  According to the Jewish  Talmud , all life is precious but a fetus is not a person, in the sense of termination of pregnancy being considered murder. If a woman's life is endangered by a pregnancy, an abortion is permitted but if the "greater part" of the fetus has emerged from the womb, then its life may not be taken, even to save the mother "because you cannot choose between one human life and another". [ 56 ]


According to some medieval  Christian  theologians,  ensoulment  occurs when a baby takes its first breath of air. They cite, among other passages, Genesis 2:7, which reads: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul". [ 57 ]  The early Church held various views on the subject, mostly either that ensoulment occurs at conception or one of delayed  hominization .  Tertullian  held the view the soul is derived from the parents and generated in parallel with the physical body; this view, which is known as   traducianism , was later condemned as heresy and  Augustine of Hippo  deemed it unsatisfactory because it did not account for  original sin . Basing himself on the Septuagint version of Exodus 21:22, Augustine affirmed the Aristotelian view of delayed hominization. [ citation needed ]   Thomas Aquinas  and Augustine of Hippo held the view fetuses were "animated"—Aristotle's term for ensoulment—near the 40th day after conception; [ 50 ]  both held abortion is always gravely wrong because it involves the medical termination of a developing person in development. [ 58 ] [ 59 ] [ 60 ]


In general, the soul was viewed as some kind of animating principle, and the human soul was referred to as the "rational soul". Some followers of  Jainism  promoted the idea sperm cells contain life ( jivas ) and thus harming them opposes the principle of non-violence ( ahimsa ). Celibacy or abstinence from sex ( bramacharya ) can be practiced to avoid releasing sperm but this is unrelated to the broader practice of celibacy in Jainism. [ 61 ]


The  Roman Catholic Church  considers fertilization as the beginning of an individual's existence; its  Pontifical Academy for Life  said: "The moment that marks the beginning of the existence of a new 'human being' is constituted by the penetration of sperm into the  oocyte . Fertilization promotes a series of linked events and transforms the egg cell into a 'zygote'." [ 62 ]  The  Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith  also has stated: "From the time that the ovum is fertilized, a new life is begun which is neither that of the father nor of the mother; it is rather the life of a new human being with his own growth". [ b ] [ 63 ]


The distinction in  ethical value  between existing persons and  potential future persons  has been questioned. [ 64 ]  It has been argued contraception and the decision not to procreate could be regarded as immoral on a similar basis to abortion. [ 65 ]  Any marker of the beginning of human personhood does not necessarily mark the moment where assistance or intervention are ethically correct or incorrect. In a  consequentialistic  point of view, an assisting or intervening action may be regarded as equivalent whether it is performed before, during, or after the creation of a human being because the result would be the same, that is, the existence or non-existence of a human being. In a view holding the value of the bringing into existence of potential persons, it has been argued the abortion of an  unintended pregnancy  in favor for conceiving a new child later in better conditions is justified. [ 66 ]


Following the decline of the  Western Roman Empire  and the adoption of Christianity as the Roman state religion,  ecclesiastical courts  held wide jurisdiction throughout Europe. According to  Donald DeMarco , [ 67 ]  the Church treated the killing of an unformed or "unanimated" fetus as a matter of "anticipated homicide", with a corresponding lesser penance required. According to the  Catechism of the Catholic Church : "Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person—among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life." [ 68 ]


Abortion in the United Kingdom  was traditionally dealt with in the  ecclesiastical courts , but from 1115,  English common law  addressed the issue, beginning with first mention in  Leges Henrici Primi . In this treatise, abortion, even that of a "formed" fetus, was a "quasi-homicide", carrying a penalty of 10 years' penance, a much-lesser penalty than would accrue to full homicide. With the exception of Bracton, later writers said killing a fetus is "great misprision, and no murder", as formulated by  Sir Edward Coke  in his  Institutes of the Lawes of England . Coke noted the murder victim must have been "a reasonable creature  in rerum natura ", in accordance with the standards of  murder in English law .  Sir William Blackstone  repeated this formulation in England and in  Bouvier's Law Dictionary  in the United States. The reasonableness of the creature is of considerable weight in the legal conception of personhood. Children are not considered full persons under the law until they reach the age of majority. Children have been treated as persons with respect to bodily offences, beginning with  Offences against the Person Act 1828 , although this protection did not prevent parents from selling their children, as in the  Eliza Armstrong case , long after the slave trade had been abolished in England. In addition, common law regarded "a child  en ventre sa mere " (in utero) as "in being" or "as born" when ensuring wills and trusts did not run afoul of the  rule against perpetuities ; nine or sometimes ten months of gestation were allotted for this purpose. [ 69 ]


In 2013, the  Parliament of New South Wales  considered a bill known as "Zoe's law", which was widely perceived as recognizing a fetus of 20 weeks as a legal person. The bill was introduced in response to the experience of Brodie Donegan, eight months pregnant, whose unborn daughter named Zoe was killed in a road accident and who was distraught the law did not consider Zoe a victim of the crime in her own right rather than as an aspect of her mother's injuries. Opponents of the bill said it threatened the legality of abortion; supporters of the bill said this concern was unjustified because its text excluded abortion from its scope. Donegan identifies as pro-choice. [ 70 ]  While the  NSW Legislative Assembly  passed the bill, [ 71 ]  it failed to pass in the upper house, the  Legislative Council , and the bill in that form was abandoned in November 2014. [ 72 ] [ 73 ]


In November 2021, the NSW government introduced a new version of "Zoe's law" that criminalized the causing of the death of a fetus of at least 20 weeks gestation; or at least 400 g (14 oz) if the gestational age could not be determined, by criminally killing or injuring the mother. [ 74 ]  That bill was passed later that month [ 75 ]  as the  Crimes Legislation Amendment (Loss of Foetus) Act 2021 . [ 76 ]  The law entered into force on 29 March 2022. [ 77 ]


The 1983  Eighth Amendment  granted the full right to life and personhood to any "unborn". Abortion was banned in nearly all cases, except to save the life of the mother. This law was  repealed  on 25 May 2018 by a 66% voting margin and abortion became legal on 1 January 2019. [ citation needed ]


In its 1885 decision  McArthur v. Scott , the  Supreme Court of the United States  affirmed the common-law principle that a child in its mother's womb can be regarded as "in being" for the purpose of resolving a dispute about wills and trusts. [ 78 ]  In 1973,  Harry Blackmun  wrote the court opinion for  Roe v. Wade , addressing the issue of human personhood in relation to abortion rights. The court said: "We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate". [ citation needed ]  The court also stated: "the word 'person,' as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn". [ citation needed ]


Several attempts were made to pass a  Human Life Amendment  in Congress. Some versions defined the word "person" in the  Fifth  and  Fourteenth  amendments to apply to all human beings starting at conception. [ 79 ] [ 80 ]  Some states have amended or attempted to amend their state constitutions to define personhood as starting at conception. [ 81 ] [ 82 ]


In 2002, the  Born-Alive Infants Protection Act  was enacted, which ensures the legal concepts of  person, baby, infant , and  child  include those that have been born alive in the course of a miscarriage or abortion, regardless of development, gestational age, or whether the placenta and umbilical cord are still attached. This law makes no comment on personhood  in utero  but ensures no person after birth is characterized as not a person. [ 83 ] [ 84 ]  In 2003, the  Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act , prohibits an abortion if "either the entire baby's head is outside the body of the mother, or any part of the baby's trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother", was enacted. [ 85 ]  In 2004, President  George W. Bush  signed the  Unborn Victims of Violence Act  into law. [ 86 ]  The law extends personhood status to a "child  in utero  at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb", [ 87 ]  if they are targeted, injured, or killed during the commission of any of over 60 listed violent crimes. The law also prohibits the prosecutions of "any person for conduct relating" to a legally consented-to abortion. Since then, 38 U.S. states legally recognized a human fetus or "unborn child" as a crime victim for the purpose of  homicide  or  feticide  laws. [ 88 ]  According to progressive media watchdog  Media Matters for America :


Further, a prenatal personhood measure might subject a woman who suffers a pregnancy-related complication or a miscarriage to criminal investigations and possibly jail time for homicide, manslaughter or reckless endangerment. And because so many laws use the terms 'persons' or 'people', a prenatal personhood measure could affect large numbers of a state's laws, changing the application of thousands of laws and resulting in unforeseeable, unintended, and absurd consequences. [ 89 ]


The 1992 Supreme Court case of  Planned Parenthood v. Casey  held a law cannot place legal restrictions imposing an  undue burden  for "the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus". [ 90 ]  This standard was upheld in the Supreme Court case of  Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt  (2016), in which several  Texas  restrictions were struck down; [ 91 ]  it was overturned in 2022 by  Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization , holding there was no constitutional right to an abortion. In 2024, the  Alabama Supreme Court  ruled  frozen embryos  were "extrauterine children", [ 92 ]  and thus were legally children in the  State of Alabama . [ 93 ] [ 94 ]  In a concurring opinion, Alabama Chief Justice  Tom Parker  discussed the issue "theologically": "human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God" because "even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory". [ 93 ] [ 95 ] [ 96 ]  The court's ruling led three major Alabama medical providers to discontinue  in-vitro fertilization  treatment because of the legal uncertainty the decision created. [ 97 ] [ 98 ]  The U.S. President  Joe Biden  described the ruling as "outrageous and unacceptable". [ 99 ]


Bodily integrity  is the inviolability of the physical body and emphasizes the importance of personal  autonomy ,  self-ownership , and  self-determination  of human beings over their own bodies. In the field of  human rights , violation of the bodily integrity of another is regarded as an unethical infringement, intrusive, and possibly criminal. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]


In the  Republic of Ireland , bodily integrity has been recognised by the courts as an  unenumerated right , protected by the general guarantee of " personal rights " contained within Article 40 of the  Irish constitution . In  Ryan v Attorney General  it was pronounced that "you have the right not to have your body or  personhood  interfered with. This means that the State may not do anything to harm your life or health. If you are in custody, you have a right not to have your health endangered while in prison". [ 7 ] [ 8 ]


In a separate case  M (Immigration - Rights of Unborn) -v- Minister for Justice and Equality & ors,  the Irish Supreme Court ruled that the right to bodily integrity extended to the unborn. [ 9 ]  In a summary of the case in section 5.19, the Supreme Court stated:


...the only right of the unborn child as the Constitution now stands which attracts the entitlement to protection and vindication is that enshrined by the amendments in Article 40.3.3 namely, the right to life or, in other words, the right to be born and, possibly, (and this is a matter for future decision) allied rights such as the right to bodily integrity which are inherent in and inseparable from the right to life itself. [ 10 ]


The  Fourth Amendment  to the  United States Constitution  states "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated".  Also, the  U.S. Supreme Court  has upheld the  right to privacy , which, as articulated by Julie Lane, often protects rights to bodily integrity. In  Griswold v. Connecticut  (1965) the Court supported women's rights to obtain birth control (and thus, retain reproductive autonomy) without marital consent. Similarly, a woman's right to privacy in obtaining  abortions  was protected by  Roe v. Wade  (1973). In  McFall v. Shimp  (1978), a Pennsylvania court ruled that a person cannot be forced to donate bone marrow, even if such a donation would save another person's life.


The Supreme Court overturned  Roe v. Wade  (1973) on June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has also protected the right of governmental entities to infringe upon bodily integrity under certain circumstances. Examples include laws prohibiting the use of drugs, laws prohibiting  euthanasia , [ 11 ]  laws requiring the use of seatbelts and helmets,  strip searches  of prisoners, [ 12 ]  and forced  blood tests . [ 13 ]


In general, the Canadian  Charter of Rights and Freedoms  defends personal liberty and the right not to be interfered with. However, in certain unique circumstances government may have the right to temporarily override the right to physical integrity in order to preserve the life of the person. Such action can be described using the principle of supported autonomy, [ 14 ]  a concept that was developed to describe unique situations in mental health (examples include the  forced feeding  of a person dying from the  eating disorder   anorexia nervosa , or the temporary treatment of a person living with a  psychotic disorder  with  antipsychotic  medication).


One unique example of a Canadian law that promotes bodily integrity is Ontario's  Health Care Consent Act . This law has to do with the capacity to  consent  to medical treatment.  The HCCA states that a person has the right to consent to or refuse treatment if they have mental capacity. In order to have capacity, a person must have the ability to understand and appreciate the consequences of the treatment decision. The law says that a person is capable with respect to a treatment, admission to a care facility or a personal assistance service if the person is able to  understand  and  appreciate  the information that is relevant to making such a decision.


Two key international documents protect these rights: the  Universal Declaration of Human Rights  and the  International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights . Furthermore, the  Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities  also requires protection of physical and mental integrity. [ 15 ]


Though bodily integrity is afforded to every human being, women are more often affected in violations of it, via unwanted pregnancy, and limited access to  contraception . These principles were addressed in the 1997 Irish Council for Civil Liberties Working Conference on Women's Rights as Human Rights, which defined bodily integrity as a right deserved by all women: "bodily integrity unifies women and ... no woman can say that it does not apply to them". [ 16 ]


As defined by the conference participants, the following are bodily integrity rights that should be guaranteed to women:


The debate over children's rights to bodily integrity has grown in recent years. [ 17 ]  In the wake of the highly publicized  Jerry Sandusky trial , [ 18 ]   parents have been increasingly encouraged to promote their child's sense of bodily integrity as a method of reducing children's vulnerability to being victims of  sexual violence ,  human trafficking  and  child prostitution . [ 19 ]


Methods of increasing children's sense of bodily autonomy include:


The  International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights  states the following: "No one shall be subjected to torture or cruel,  inhuman or degrading treatment  or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation". [ 20 ]


An  abortion clinic  or  abortion provider  is a medical facility that provides  abortions . Such  clinics  may be public medical centers, private medical practices or  nonprofit organizations  such as  Planned Parenthood .


Abortion was criminalised in the  Netherlands  in 1911; nonetheless, a demand for terminating pregnancies remained, and an illegal abortion market grew. In 1962, about 25,000 abortions were performed in the entire country, all of them illegal and unsafe. 70 amateur abortionists were sentenced that year. [ 12 ] : 12:27   Illegal abortions were mostly performed with very risky and dangerous methods, which led to serious infections and internal bleeding. About 20 to 30 women died of complications each year, while many others were disabled for life and resigned to  wheelchairs . [ 12 ] : 10:28


In the late 1960s, the taboo on abortion was gradually broken in public discourse. More and more experts came to the point of view that abortions would happen anyway, whether or not the act was criminalised, and it was to conduct them safely for those women determined to end their pregnancy. [ 12 ] : 12:43   In the early 1970s, the first specialised abortion clinics emerged such as in  Arnhem  (Mildredhuis, 1971) and  Heemstede  (Bloemenhove Clinic, 1973). [ 12 ] : 16:01   By 1975, abortion clinic network Stimezo (an abbreviation of  Sti chting  Me disch Verantwoorde  Z wangerschaps o nderbreking , "Medically Responsible Pregnancy Termination Foundation", set up in 1969) ran nine clinics throughout the country. [ 13 ]  The government tolerated these illegal clinics until 1976, when Minister of Justice  Dries van Agt  tried to close the Bloemenhove Clinic, which was promptly occupied by hundreds of pro-choice activists from numerous women's rights organisations. After a two-week standoff, a judge ruled in favour of the clinic, and Van Agt had to back down from taking the clinic by force. It would take until 1984 when abortion was finally legalised after long-winded heated parliamentary debates, with high pressure from the supporters and opponents of reproductive rights. [ 13 ]


Between 2011 and 2016, 162 abortion clinics in the United States closed or stopped offering abortions due largely to legislative regulations enacted by Republican state lawmakers. [ 14 ]  These bills, referred to as  TRAP laws  (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Provider) implement medically unnecessary restrictions for clinics that will be difficult or impossible for providers to meet, therefore forcing clinics to close under the guise of increasing the safety of the procedure. [ 15 ]


Access to abortions is extremely limited, particularly in rural and conservative areas. According to the  Guttmacher Institute , 31% of women in rural areas traveled over 100 miles in order to receive an abortion while another 43% traveled between 50–100 miles. [ 16 ]  These numbers are only increasing as more clinics are forced to close. Between 2011 and 2016 the number of abortion clinics in  Texas  dropped from 40 to 19 [ 17 ]  as a result of the state's House Bill 2, which was struck down by the  Supreme Court  in June 2016. [ 18 ]
In 2023,  The Satanic Temple  launched a clinic named after   Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Samuel Alito ’s mother. [ 19 ]


Abortion clinics have frequently been the site of protests by  anti-abortion activists . Protesters often engage in what is known as " sidewalk counseling ", in which they warn people entering the clinic about  risks of abortion , attempt to offer alternatives to abortion or show pictures of  fetuses . [ 20 ]  In 1985, 85%  of abortion providers were experiencing either picketing, clinic blockades or invasion of the facility, [ 21 ]  with 19% of providers receiving bomb threats and 16% were picketed at their homes. [ 22 ]  In 2000 82% of facilities received protests with 61% receiving 20 or more pickets. [ 23 ]


The 2007 film  Juno  contains an example of such protest. The protagonist enters a clinic with the purpose of procuring an abortion, but sees a fellow student protesting outside the clinic who tells her that the fetus " has fingernails ". [ 24 ]  This causes Juno to change her mind about having an abortion, and she leaves the clinic, with her friend calling out to her, "God appreciates your miracle." [ 25 ]


Another tactic in which protestors film or photograph patients entering the clinic utilizes the societal  stigma  surrounding abortion and attempts to expose or shame women who are seeking the procedure. [ 26 ]   Anti-abortion activists  have also attempted to access abortion clinic medical records by breaking into dumpsters, proposing state legislation that would require clinics to provide information regarding their patients to the government and hacking online databases containing confidential patient information. [ 27 ]


In some countries, a  buffer zone  is enforced to prevent protesters from standing within a certain distance of the clinic entrance. [ 28 ]  In the United States these buffer zones have been the subject of many lawsuits and legislative actions on both statewide and national levels. In 2014 the Supreme Court unanimously struck down a Massachusetts bill that had legalized a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics in the state in 2007. [ 29 ]