Abortion Laws

Extracted Attributes

• Global Trend

  Toward liberalization; declining numbers due to increased access to contraception.

• US Legal Landscape

  Increasingly settled at the state level following the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision.

• Common Gestational Limits

  Up to 12 weeks for abortion on request; up to 24 weeks for reasons like rape, incest, or socioeconomic factors; more for fetal impairment or risk to woman's health.

• Global Accessibility (2025)

  Approximately 60% of the global population lives in countries where abortion is legally accessible on request or for socioeconomic reasons.

Timeline

• Connecticut becomes the first state to regulate abortion by statute. (Source: Web Search)

  1821-01-01

• New York makes post-quickening abortions a felony and pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor. (Source: Web Search)

  1829-01-01

• The Soviet Union (Russian SFSR) becomes the first modern state to legalize abortions on request. (Source: Web Search)

  1920-01-01

• Colorado becomes the first US state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or permanent physical disability of the woman. (Source: Web Search)

  1967-01-01

• The United Kingdom passes the Abortion Act, legalizing abortions up to 28 weeks (later reduced to 24 weeks). (Source: Web Search)

  1967-01-01

• Canada legalizes abortion. (Source: Web Search)

  1969-01-01

• Hawaii becomes the first US state to legalize abortions on the request of the woman. (Source: Web Search)

  1970-01-01

• New York repeals its 1830 law and allows abortions up to the 24th week of pregnancy. (Source: Web Search)

  1970-01-01

• The US Supreme Court issues the Roe v. Wade decision, legalizing abortion nationwide. (Source: Web Search)

  1973-01-01

• Tunisia and Denmark legalize abortion. (Source: Web Search)

  1973-01-01

• Yugoslavia implicitly inscribes abortion rights in its constitution. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1974-01-01

• Austria legalizes abortion. (Source: Web Search)

  1974-01-01

• France and Sweden legalize abortion. (Source: Web Search)

  1975-01-01

• New Zealand legalizes abortion. (Source: Web Search)

  1977-01-01

• Italy legalizes abortion. (Source: Web Search)

  1978-01-01

• The Netherlands legalizes abortion. (Source: Web Search)

  1984-01-01

• Belgium legalizes abortion. (Source: Web Search)

  1990-01-01

• Argentina and Thailand legalize abortions with certain gestational limits; South Korea decriminalizes abortion. (Source: Web Search)

  2020-01-01

• The US Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturns Roe v. Wade, eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion and returning authority to individual states. (Source: Web Search, Related Documents)

  2022-06-01

• France becomes the first country to explicitly protect abortion rights in its constitution. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2024-03-04

• Approximately 60% of the global population lives in countries where abortion is legally accessible on request or for socioeconomic reasons. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2025-01-01

Abortion law by country

Abortion laws vary widely among countries and territories, and have changed over time. Such laws range from abortion being freely available on request, to regulation or restrictions of various kinds, to outright prohibition in all circumstances. Many countries and territories that allow abortion have gestational limits for the procedure depending on the reason; with the majority being up to 12 weeks for abortion on request, up to 24 weeks for rape, incest, or socioeconomic reasons, and more for fetal impairment or risk to the woman's health or life. As of 2025, countries that legally allow abortion on request or for socioeconomic reasons comprise about 60% of the world's population. In 2024, France became the first country to explicitly protect abortion rights in its constitution, while Yugoslavia implicitly inscribed abortion rights in its constitution in 1974. Abortion continues to be a controversial subject in many societies on religious, moral, ethical, practical, and political grounds. Though it has been banned and otherwise limited by law in many jurisdictions, abortions continue to be common in many areas, even where they are illegal. According to a 2007 study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization, abortion rates are similar in countries where the procedure is legal and in countries where it is not, due to unavailability of modern contraceptives in areas where abortion is illegal. Also according to the study, the number of abortions worldwide is declining due to increased access to contraception.

Web Search Results

• The History of Abortion Law in the United States

  According to Guttmacher Institute, states passedmore than 1,300abortion restrictions between the 1973 _Roe v. Wade_ decision and June 2022.These laws ban abortionafter a particular gestational ageor based on sex, race, or genetic anomaly, prohibit specificabortion methods, imposebiased counseling and waiting periods, requireunnecessary ultrasounds, restrict access tomedication abortions, limit who can provide abortion health care, and impose targeted regulation of abortion providers, or TRAP, [...] The goal of personhood laws is to criminalize abortion as well as any forms of birth control that work by preventing sperm from fertilizing an egg. Opponents of abortion rights have even used proposed measures to prevent doctors from treating complicated and potentially dangerous pregnancies. Alabama, Kansas, Missouri, and several other states have passed laws that use personhood language.Many other state legislatures have also considered personhood language in state laws. [...] Several states have passed laws to protect patients, providers, and clinics from anti-abortion extremists. As of 2021,14 states had laws to protect access to clinics, including laws prohibiting blocking an entrance; threatening or intimidating staff or patients; damaging a facility; making harassing phone calls; creating excessive noise outside a clinic; possessing and/or having access to a weapon during a demonstration at a facility; trespassing; or releasing a substance that produces noxious

• Abortion Law: Global Comparisons - Council on Foreign Relations

  For decades, states have introduced and implemented various laws regulating abortions. Some passed laws to protect abortion access, while others imposed more onerous regulations on abortion providers and sought to prohibit abortion at earlier points in pregnancy. Many states have passed increasingly strict abortion laws in recent years, sometimes banning the procedure after as few as six weeks of pregnancy. Some states with stringent abortion restrictions, such as Idaho, Oklahoma, and Texas, [...] The global trend in abortion law has been toward liberalization. In the last thirty years, more than sixty countries have changed their abortion laws, and all but four—the United States, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Poland—expanded the legal grounds on which women can access abortion services. Since 2020, Argentina and Thailand legalized abortions, with certain gestational limits; South Korea decriminalized abortion; and New Zealand eased its abortion restrictions. Most recently, amid a growing [...] Notes: Abortion laws vary by state in the United States and Mexico. Some countries that permit abortion to save the person’s life, to preserve health, or on social or economic grounds also permit it in cases of rape, incest, or fetal impairment. On social or economic grounds On request (gestational limits vary) To save the person’s life To preserve health Prohibited The June 2022 Supreme Court decision means U.S. laws vary by state.

• Abortion in the United States

  In 1967, Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman. Similar laws were passed in California, Oregon, and North Carolina. In 1970, Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortions on the request of the woman, and New York repealed its 1830 law and allowed abortions up to the 24th week of pregnancy. Similar laws were soon passed in Alaska and Washington "Washington (state)"). [...] As of 2025, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming have a right to abortion in their state constitutions, either explicitly or as interpreted by the state supreme court. Other states, such as Massachusetts and Oregon, protect abortion under state law. The state constitutions of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and West Virginia explicitly contain no right to [...] Within the context of a sex scandal, Connecticut became the first state to regulate abortion by statute in 1821. Many states subsequently passed various abortion laws. In 1829, New York "New York (state)") made post-quickening abortions a felony and pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor. This was followed by 10 of the 26 states creating similar restrictions within the next few decades, in particular by the 1860s and 1870s. The first laws related to abortion were made to protect women from real

• Tracking Abortion Laws Across the Country - The New York Times

  Dozens of states have added protections since the Dobbs decision in an effort to preserve or expand access to abortion. Many have passed abortion shield laws, which provide legal protections for both patients and providers in states where abortion is legal. Eight states have gone even further by enacting telemedicine shield laws, which aim to protect doctors and others who prescribe and send abortion pills in the mail to patients located in states with bans. [...] Abortion is broadly legal in 31 states and Washington, D.C. In Montana and Wyoming, two states that have enacted bans, abortion remains legal for now as courts determine whether these laws can take effect. More than half of the states where abortion is legal limit the procedure to around fetal “viability,” the point at which a fetus could survive outside the uterus, or around 24 weeks of pregnancy. ### Where abortion is legal Legal Ban blocked ## Where laws protect providers and patients

• Abortion law by country - Wikipedia

  In the 19th century, many Western countries began to codify abortion laws or place further restrictions on the practice. Anti-abortion movements were led by a combination of groups opposed to abortion on moral grounds, and by medical professionals who were concerned about the danger presented by the procedure and the regular involvement of non-medical personnel in performing abortions. Nevertheless, it became clear that illegal abortions continued to take place in large numbers even where [...] In the United Kingdom, the Abortion Act of 1967 clarified and prescribed abortions as legal up to 28 weeks (later reduced to 24 weeks). Other countries soon followed, including Canada (1969), the United States (1973 in most states, pursuant to _Roe v. Wade_—the U.S. Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion nationwide), Tunisia and Denmark (1973), Austria (1974), France and Sweden (1975), New Zealand (1977), Italy (1978), the Netherlands (1984), and Belgium (1990). However, these [...] By the first half of the 20th century, many countries had begun to liberalize abortion laws, at least when performed to protect the woman's life and in some cases on the woman's request. Under Vladimir Lenin, the Soviet Union became the first modern state in legalizing abortions on request—the law was first introduced in the Russian SFSR in 1920, in the Ukrainian SSR in July 1921, and then in the whole country.( The Bolsheviks saw abortion as a social evil created by the capitalist system,