Abortion

Global Statistics (WHO, Sept 25, 2020)
- Average of 73.3 million induced (safe and unsafe) abortions per year (2015-2019).
- 39 induced abortions per 1000 women aged 15–49.
- 29% of all pregnancies and 61% of unintended pregnancies ended in abortion.
- Over half of unsafe abortions globally occurred in Asia (most in South and Central Asia).
- 75% of abortions in Africa and Latin America were unsafe.
- 45% of all abortions were unsafe (estimates from 2010-2014), primarily in developing countries.

International Status (as of Jan 4, 2021)
- Legally allowed for:
  - Saving the woman's life.
  - Preserving health.
  - Socioeconomic grounds.
- Broadly prohibited: entirely in some regions.
- Without restriction: in others.

State Policies (2019)
- 30 states demonstrate hostility to abortion rights.
- 14 states demonstrate support for abortion rights.
Support Spectrum:
- Very supportive
- Supportive
- Leans supportive
- Middleground
- Leans hostile
- Hostile
- Very hostile

Major barriers include:
- Restrictive laws.
- Poor availability of services.
- High costs.
- Stigma associated with abortion.
- Conscientious objection by healthcare providers.
- Requirements like mandatory waiting periods, counseling, misleading information, third-party authorization, medical tests, which delay access.

Historical Context:
- First documented abortifacients in China (4500 years ago).
- Elite women used abortifacients to avoid childbearing, shifting biological duties onto concubines/maidservants.

Content:
- Most extensive surviving record of ancient Egyptian medicine (700 magical formulas and folk remedies).
- Contains remedies and incantations to combat diseases and evidence of a long tradition of empirical healthcare practices.

Significance of the Code:
- Oldest known laws; depicted Hammurabi receiving laws from the sun god.
- Contains 282 laws, providing transparency and clarity that laws were accessible to men, women, and slaves, unlike unwritten laws in other civilizations.

Laws on miscarriage penalties:
- If a man causes a free woman to miscarry, he pays 10 shekels.
- If the woman dies, the perpetrator's daughter is killed.
- Varied fines based on the woman's social status (plebeian or slave).

Historical Shift:
- Prior to the 19th century, abortion was widely practiced and legal.
- As medicine advanced, many places began outlawing abortion at all pregnancy stages due to increasing medical professional involvement and social backlash against women's rights.

1892: First Criminal Code in Canada; prohibits abortion and contraceptives.
1969: Abortion allowed under specific conditions determined by a committee of doctors.
1970: Dr. Henry Morgentaler opens an abortion clinic—spurs legal battles.
1975: Petition against abortion rights with over one million signatures.
1982: Charter of Rights and Freedoms enacted; challenge to abortion funding based on this framework.
Jan 28, 1988: Supreme Court strikes down abortion law as unconstitutional, reaffirming women's rights.

1989: Ruling states a man has no legal right to veto a woman's abortion decision.
1990: Bill C-43 proposes jail sentences for doctors performing non-life-threatening abortions; ultimately fails to pass.
1994: Dr. Garson Romalis shot for performing abortions; marks increased violence against abortion providers.

Article Title:
- "A Day of Reckoning: Abortion on Trial"
- Discusses new rulings and intensified debates surrounding abortion rights.