Legal Aspects of Criminal Abortion
Of course, this is precisely the raison d`être of all abortion restrictions. Allowing the government to deprive people of liberty on the basis of their pregnancy opens the door to extensive public intervention in personal choices during pregnancy and childbirth. Even after the Roe decision in 1973, people were arrested and prosecuted for miscarriage, stillbirth, or attempting to terminate their own pregnancies. The American Bar Association rejects the accusations, but more than 1,200 women have been arrested for pregnancies after Roe. Other countries have imposed the same penalty on the abortion provider and the pregnant woman. For example, the Iraqi Penal Code explicitly states that “the same penalty [as a pregnant woman] applies to anyone who intentionally causes a miscarriage of that woman with her consent. Some countries that have more liberal abortion laws criminalize abortion above a certain pregnancy threshold or when abortion is obtained using certain methods. For example, the Czech Republic allows abortion on demand up to the 12th week of pregnancy and later for certain reasons such as life or health risks. However, the Criminal Code of the Czech Republic criminalizes abortions performed “in a manner other than that permitted by the law on abortion of pregnancies”, including self-administered abortions at any time during pregnancy, abortions that take place outside the health facilities specified in the Code. [26] Sections 161 and 162(1) of Act No. 40/2009 Coll.
Criminal Code (as amended on 1 January 2010), Czech Republic (1986). A handful of countries around the world have taken steps to limit the involvement of criminal law in regulating abortion. For example, in R. v. Morgentaler, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that section 251 of the Criminal Code of Canada, which criminalized abortion unless the woman`s life or health was in danger, was unconstitutional and violated Canadians` right to life, liberty and security. Therefore, Canada does not regulate abortion through its Criminal Code or Criminal Code. In Colombia, the Colombian Constitutional Court, in its decision C-355/2006 abolishing the general criminalization of abortion, recognized that the use of criminal sanctions to completely ban all forms of abortion constitutes a disproportionate measure to protect the interests of the foetus and society, especially where less restrictive forms of regulation were available, that do not violate women`s constitutionally protected human rights. [18] C-355/2006 Since the 1973 Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the states have built a lattice of abortion law that codifies, regulates and limits whether, when and under what circumstances a person can have an abortion. The following table shows the most important provisions of these state laws.
For more information, select the column headings in the table in blue. Unless otherwise stated, laws are in force, although they are not always enforced. The legislators who proposed this unusual system did so to circumvent opposition and judicial oversight of the application of laws criminalizing abortion. Yet both of these approaches — the use of civil and criminal penalties — achieve the same goals: Texas Law S.B.8 is part of a broader movement to criminalize any pregnancy outcome that lawmakers deem undesirable, including, but not limited to, abortion. ▼ Mandatory at all times; Law not in force. * Exception in case of danger to the physical health of the patient. † exception for rape or incest. ‡ Exception only in cases of danger to life. A 2016 statement from New York`s attorney general noted that the state`s law contradicts U.S. Supreme Court rulings on abortion and that abortion care is permitted by the U.S. Constitution to protect a person`s health when the fetus is not viable.
Ω exception for fetal abnormalities. Despite a court order, the state`s Medicaid program does not pay for medically necessary abortions. ξ Applies only to surgical abortions. In New Mexico, some, but not all, advanced clinicians may offer medical abortion. The law limits the abortion provision to OBs/GYNs. A court has temporarily blocked a Mississippi law that would have banned abortion 15 weeks after the patient`s last period. To determine the impact of abortion criminalization on abortion seekers and health workers, a systematic review of studies published between 2010 and 2019 was conducted, identifying 22 studies conducted in Australia, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ireland, Mexico, Northern Ireland (United Kingdom), Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay and Zambia. A summary of the evidence from these studies is presented in Supplementary Material 1, HTA Framework for Criminalization. Data from these studies showed that criminalization delayed access to abortion, including in some cases, forcing providers to wait until a woman`s life was in danger before abortion could be performed under legal exceptions to criminal prohibitions.
In addition, criminalization imposes a number of burdens on women, including unnecessary travel and costs, delays or lack of access to follow-up care, stress and stigma. Evidence suggests that criminalization has had no impact on the decision to abort, prevented women from performing abortions, or prevented women from seeking information and referrals to services abroad where they have access to abortion. Instead, criminalization limits access to safe and legal abortions and increases the use of illegal and unsafe abortions.