The most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of
women in the world.

Latest items for ABO-LAW-1

Feb. 13, 2025, 10:47 p.m.
Countries: Italy
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Abortion is legal in Italy during the first 90 days of pregnancy for health, economic, social, or personal reasons. However, burdensome requirements as well as extensive use of 'conscientious objection' by medical personnel function to deny care to women and girls, and leave them scrambling to find services within the legal time frame. Significant barriers to accessing abortion persist in Italy, such as the need for multiple clinical visits and a seven-day waiting period – the longest in Europe – except in cases of emergency, and lengthy waits for appointments. Such delays prevent access to medical or surgical abortion within the legal time frames and undermine women’s reproductive choice. Additionally,...more
Feb. 13, 2025, 10:40 p.m.
Countries: France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, United Kingdom
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Other European governments – including in France, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, and Germany – took steps to facilitate access to medical abortion early in the pandemic by extending legal time limits, permitting self-management of medical abortion at home, and conducting consultations via telemedicine" (6).
Feb. 6, 2025, 9:50 p.m.
Countries: Russia
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Although abortion is still legal and widely available in Russia, recent attempts to restrict it have touched a nerve across the increasingly conservative country" (para. 4). "In the Soviet Union, abortion laws meant that some women had the procedure multiple times due to difficulties in obtaining contraceptives. After the USSR’s collapse, government and health experts promoted family planning and birth control, sending abortion rates falling. At the same time, laws allowed women to terminate a pregnancy up until 12 weeks without any conditions; and until 22 weeks for many 'social reasons,' like divorce, unemployment or income. That changed under Putin, who has forged a powerful alliance with the Russian Orthodox...more
Feb. 6, 2025, 9:49 p.m.
Countries: United States
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision rescinding a five-decade-old right to abortion has reshaped American abortion policy, shifting power to states. About half of U.S. states have adopted bans or major restrictions, although not all are being enforced due to legal challenges" (para 7).
Feb. 6, 2025, 7:27 p.m.
Countries: Morocco
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Despite the amendment of article 453 of the Penal Code to allow abortion in specific cases, most abortions remain illegal, which may push women and girls to continue to seek out clandestine abortions, putting their health and life at risk...The consent of the husband, parents or guardian is still required for abortion in cases where the woman suffers from mental health problems...Information on the number of clandestine abortions taking place in the State party is lacking" (11).
Feb. 5, 2025, 7:17 p.m.
Countries: United States
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Several political parties, from the left to centrists, began pushing for abortion rights to be written into the constitution after the US supreme court’s decision in June 2022 to overturn the Roe v Wade ruling of 1973, which recognised a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and legalised it nationwide" (para 12).
Feb. 5, 2025, 7:17 p.m.
Countries: Poland
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"In Poland, which has some of the harshest abortion laws in Europe, allowing pregnancies to be ended only in the event of rape, incest or a threat to the mother’s health or life, restrictions were tightened further in 2020 when the country’s constitutional tribunal ruled that abortions on the grounds of foetal defects were unconstitutional" (para 14).
Feb. 5, 2025, 7:17 p.m.
Countries: Italy
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Although abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978, accessing the procedure is extremely difficult owing to the high number of gynaecologists who are moral objectors. Italy’s far-right government, which came to power last October, is against abortion, although the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said the law would not be changed" (para 15).
Feb. 5, 2025, 7:17 p.m.
Countries: Hungary
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"In September last year, Hungary’s far-right government made it obligatory for women to 'listen to the foetal heartbeat' before they can access a safe abortion" (para 13).
Feb. 5, 2025, 7:13 p.m.
Countries: France
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Emmanuel Macron has promised to enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in the French constitution by next year, after restrictions in other countries propelled France on a path towards unconditionally guaranteeing abortion rights. The French president said on Sunday that his government would submit a draft text to France’s highest administrative court over the coming week, with the aim of making abortion rights constitutional by the end of the year" (para 1-2). "The resolution was overwhelmingly backed in the national assembly last November before being passed in the senate in February, despite opposition from rightwing parties, which argued that France’s abortion rights were not at risk" (para 5). "Abortion...more
Feb. 5, 2025, 6:51 p.m.
Countries: Poland
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"In Poland, where there has been a near-total ban on legal abortion since 2020, there were concerns raised earlier this year in response to a state-funded study which reported forensic tests could be used to detect abortion pills in foetal and maternal samples" (para 12).
Feb. 5, 2025, 6:51 p.m.
Countries: United States
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"After Roe v Wade was overturned in the US last summer, removing the constitutional right to an abortion, women were urged by activists and data privacy experts to delete period trackers over fears law enforcement could use the data to identify those seeking abortions" (para 24).
Feb. 5, 2025, 6:50 p.m.
Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Although abortion was legalised in England and Wales in 1967, the procedure is still criminal in specific circumstances. Under Section 58 of the Offence Against the Person Act 1861, which carries a maximum life sentence, it is illegal for a woman to administer 'poison' (abortion pills) with the intent to cause her own miscarriage after the 24-week legal limit. Last month, the fifth woman this year appeared in an English court charged under Section 58, compared with only three previous prosecutions in the past 160 years" (para 8-10).
Feb. 5, 2025, 4:44 p.m.
Countries: Morocco
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Under the Moroccan penal code, performing or undergoing an abortion is a crime punishable by imprisonment unless the procedure is 'a necessary measure to safeguard the health of the mother'" (3). "In more recent years, authorities have used the criminalization of sexual relations and abortion to prosecute critics, journalists and dissidents of the state as well as to smear them" (4). "Police in Rabat arrested a 28-year-old journalist on August 31, 2019, and interrogated her about her intimate life. She was taken to Rabat’s Ibn Sina hospital, where she was subjected to a gynecological examination without her consent. Two days later a prosecutor charged her with having an abortion and...more
Feb. 3, 2025, 9:51 p.m.
Countries: China
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"From 1979 to 2015, China imposed the 'one-child policy.' The policy violated women’s reproductive rights. Its enforcement through measures like forced and coerced abortion and sterilization compounded the abuse" (3). "There are disturbing reports that the Chinese government is imposing forced population control measures on Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities as part of this crackdown, while easing restrictions for the Han population. Women in Xinjiang have reported that the Chinese government carries out pregnancy checks, requires them to use intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUD), and forces sterilizations and abortions on them" (4).
Feb. 3, 2025, 5:31 p.m.
Countries: Hungary
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Alongside preventing reasonable access to emergency contraception, Hungarian law continues to hinder access to abortion. Abortion remains permissible by law upon request up to the twelfth week of pregnancy, or later in cases where there is 'severe' or fatal fetal impairment, threat to the life or health of the woman, or the pregnancy is the result of a criminal act. However, the government changed the Constitution in 2011 to include protection of life from the moment of conception. Medical abortion remains unavailable within the country. Other barriers such as waiting periods and mandatory 'counseling' appointments prevent effective access and continue to stigmatize abortion. In October 2020, Hungary co-sponsored the anti-abortion...more
Feb. 3, 2025, 5:15 p.m.
Countries: Nigeria
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Abortion is widely frowned upon in culturally conservative Nigeria, in both the Christian-dominated south and in the majority-Muslim north. It is also illegal except to save the life of the mother. In the north, any person found guilty of participating in an abortion, including the woman, can be charged with a felony and given up to 14 years in prison, and potentially a fine. Causing a woman’s death by performing an abortion without her consent is also punishable by life in prison in the north. Reuters could not determine how frequently abortions result in criminal prosecution. Forced abortions may also violate the Nigerian military’s code of conduct. The most recent...more
Feb. 3, 2025, 2:10 p.m.
Countries: Nigeria
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Abortion is widely frowned upon in culturally conservative Nigeria, in both the Christian-dominated south and in the majority-Muslim north. It is also illegal except to save the life of the mother. In the north, any person found guilty of participating in an abortion, including the woman, can be charged with a felony and given up to 14 years in prison, and potentially a fine. Causing a woman’s death by performing an abortion without her consent is also punishable by life in prison in the north. Reuters could not determine how frequently abortions result in criminal prosecution. Forced abortions may also violate the Nigerian military’s code of conduct. The most recent...more
Jan. 30, 2025, 7:52 p.m.
Countries: Honduras
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"[I]t notes with concern: (a) The criminalization of abortion without exception, resulting in a high number of women and girls seeking unsafe abortions and in preventable maternal mortality" (13).
Jan. 30, 2025, 4:08 p.m.
Countries: Mauritania
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"A draft law on gender-based violence, supported by the Ministry of Justice, has been twice rejected by parliament and remains pending at time of writing.... While a step in the right direction, the current draft falls short in several respects, including by maintaining criminal charges for consensual sexual relations outside marriage and restrictions on abortion" (2).
Jan. 29, 2025, 8:02 p.m.
Countries: Argentina
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Argentina has a recent history of strong feminist mobilisation. In 2015, a wave of marches against femicide sparked similar protests in Peru, Uruguay, Italy and Germany, while the country’s Green Wave movement was instrumental in securing safe abortion rights in 2020" (para 10).
Jan. 29, 2025, 7:35 p.m.
Countries: Costa Rica
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"The Committee notes the decrease in the number of early pregnancies in the State party and welcomes the adoption of technical guidelines for the therapeutic termination of pregnancy (2019). However, it remains deeply concerned at: (a) The criminalization of abortion in cases of rape, incest or severe fetal impairment and women’s limited access to safe abortion and post-abortion services in the State party; (b) Threats to repeal the technical guidelines for the therapeutic termination of pregnancy and the lack of training of medical personnel on the guidelines" (9).
Jan. 28, 2025, 8:56 p.m.
Countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Bosnia’s women can legally obtain abortion during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, though economic impediments exist in the impoverished, post-war country” (para 20).
Jan. 28, 2025, 8:56 p.m.
Countries: France
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"The issue was back in focus this month after France inscribed the right to abortion in its constitution” (para 5). “Stating that ‘it is the right of a human being to freely decide on the birth of children,’ Yugoslavia’s constitution did not explicitly guarantee abortion, as France's does.... ‘France’s decision reminded us that we had that right in the 1974 constitution, which means exactly 50 years before France,’ Ignjatovic said” (para 18-19).
Jan. 28, 2025, 8:56 p.m.
Countries: Serbia, Slovenia
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia, Serbia and Slovenia have included the freedom to choose whether to have children in their constitutions" (para 20).
Jan. 28, 2025, 8:49 p.m.
Countries: Croatia
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"The fierce debate has fueled divisions in the European Union nation of about 3.9 million people where abortion remains legal but access to the procedure is often denied, sending many women to neighboring Slovenia to end a pregnancy. The movement is in stark contrast to Croatia’s recent past, when it was part of the former Yugoslavia, a Communist-run country that protected abortion rights in its constitution 50 years ago" (para 2-3). "The issue was back in focus this month after France inscribed the right to abortion in its constitution and activists in the Balkans recalled that the former Yugoslavia had done so back in 1974" (para 5). "Yugoslavia's abortion laws...more
Jan. 28, 2025, 7:59 p.m.
Countries: Costa Rica
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Costa Rica adopted two amendments to the Act to Combat Trafficking in Persons and Establish the National Coalition against the Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons (Act No. 9726 of 30 July 2019), which brought the definition of 'trafficking in persons' into line with the Palermo Protocol through the inclusion of the phrase 'through the use of technology'. In addition, the text of the Act was amended to cover forced abortion, and the definition of 'sexual exploitation' was expanded" (9). "In response to the recommendation on technical guidelines for therapeutic abortion (contained in paragraph 31 (b)), in December 2019 the Government of Costa Rica formalized the Technical Standard for...more
Jan. 18, 2025, 1:37 p.m.
Countries: Mexico
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"Mexico’s Supreme Court threw out all federal criminal penalties for abortion Wednesday, ruling that national laws prohibiting the procedure are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights in a sweeping decision that extended Latin American’s trend of widening abortion access. The high court ordered that abortion be removed from the federal penal code. The ruling will require the federal public health service and all federal health institutions to offer abortion to anyone who requests it. 'No woman or pregnant person, nor any health worker, will be able to be punished for abortion,' the Information Group for Chosen Reproduction, known by its Spanish initials GIRE, said in a statement" (par. 1-3). "Some 20...more
Jan. 18, 2025, 1:37 p.m.
Countries: United States
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1, ABO-LAW-1

"The U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that provided a right to abortion nationwide. Since then, most states led by conservative lawmakers and governors have adopted bans or tighter restrictions" (par. 24). "Currently, abortion is banned throughout pregnancy — with limited exceptions — in 15 American states. Bans in two more states forbid abortion after cardiac activity can be detected, generally around six weeks into pregnancy and often before women know they are pregnant. Judges have put enforcement of restrictions on hold in at least four additional states" (par. 26).
Jan. 18, 2025, 1:36 p.m.
Countries: Argentina, Colombia
Variables: ABO-LAW-1

"After decades of work by activists across the region, the trend picked up speed in Argentina, which in 2020 legalized the procedure. In 2022, Colombia, a highly conservative country, did the same" (par. 23).