Second trimester abortion laws globally: actuality, trends and recommendations.

There are important and compelling reasons why women have second trimester abortions, which constitute a significant percentage of all abortions performed. Laws vary widely around the world on the legality of these abortions. In many cases, they are quite restrictive. Indeed, the later in pregnancy an abortion is sought, the more restrictive the law tends to be. However, many laws say little about second trimester or later abortions. This article reviews the laws of the 191 countries around the world for which information is available and categorizes them by legal indications, which include preservation of the woman's life, health reasons, pregnancy due to sex offences, fetal impairment, socio-economic reasons and on request. Given that there are serious reasons why women have second trimester abortions, and that the laws in many countries do not make these abortions legally available, this paper makes recommendations on how laws and regulations can be changed in order better to respond to women's needs. While most countries may not decriminalise all abortions in the near future, especially second trimester abortions, less comprehensive legislative and regulatory reforms are possible. These include recommendations aimed at ensuring that abortions are carried out safely and as early as possible in pregnancy, and improving access to safe abortions by removing unnecessary legal and regulatory restrictions.

Developments in laws on induced abortion: 1998-2007.

CONTEXT: Women's lack of access to legal abortion is a major contributing factor to high rates of worldwide maternal mortality and morbidity. This article describes changes in the legal status of abortion in countries around the world since 1998. METHODS: The complete texts of new abortion legislation, most often obtained directly from government Web sites, were reviewed to determine changes. Background information was, where possible, also based on a review of complete legal texts. Other sources include the International Digest of Health Legislation (published by the World Health Organization) and Abortion Policies: A Global Review (published in 2002 by the Population Division of the United Nations). RESULTS: Since 1998, 16 countries have increased the number of grounds on which abortions may be legally performed; in two other countries, state jurisdictions expanded grounds for abortion. Two countries have removed grounds for legal abortion. Other countries maintained existing indications for abortion but adopted changes affecting access to the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: The worldwide trend toward liberalization of abortion laws observed in 1998 has continued. Recognition of the impact of abortion restrictions on women's human rights has played an increasing role in efforts to provide access to abortion.

The current status of abortion laws in Latin America: prospects and strategies for change.

In order to explore ways of dealing with this phenomenon of illegal abortions and restrictive abortion laws in Latin America, several special sessions were held at last summer's international conference in Toronto, sponsored by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics. The sessions brought together lawyers, health professionals, and reproductive rights advocates from a number of Latin American countries; their counterparts in the developed world; and representatives of non-governmental agencies concerned with this issue, including Catholics for a Free Choice. The goal of the sessions was to share information on the status of abortion in various countries and to try to devise strategies to make abortion law reform more palatable to Latin American governments and public opinion. One major component of the sessions was a series of papers prepared by some of the Latin American representatives describing and analyzing the situations in their countries. The papers illustrate some of the issues facing women in this part of the world.

Abortion law in Europe in 1991-1992.

... This article will analyze legal developments relating to abortion that have taken place in 1991-1992 in six countries of western and eastern Europe: Poland, Hungary, Albania, Germany, Ireland, and Belgium.