What Are the Laws and Opinions on Abortion in Various Countries - Essay Example

"What Are the Laws and Opinions on Abortion in Various Countries" is a brilliant example of a paper on pregnancy.
Abortion laws are one of the ongoing controversial issues that have been prevalent for a long time now. It is discussed and investigated at all levels from social, political aspect up to medicinal necessity. Fundamentally, Abortion is the termination of pregnancy after 12 weeks of gestations, which results in the death of an embryo (Sedgh et. al., 2012). The emphasis of this study is to ascertain the difference between laws on abortion in other countries and how they vary from the USA. The legitimacy of abortion is a significant factor in Woman’s life to liberally take advantage of her reproductive rights. While these laws are highly moderate in some countries, they are restrictive in nature in some (Zampas and Gher, 2008).

It is seen that many governments struggle to maintain a balance between the human right of a pregnant woman and the civil rights of an unborn fetus. And this results in different laws and policies between nations when it comes to abortion laws, defining when and in which circumstances she is officially allowed to go under the abortion procedure. In a sample size of 198 countries, it was determined where the US stands top with its constitution for abortion as compared to the rest of the world and it was also noticed that there were only 7 nations which allowed the abortion after 20 weeks of gestation and USA was among one of them.  Out of 198 nations, 59 nations permit elective abortion (that stands for an abortion without any restricted cause). However, the rest of the 139 do impose rational reason restriction for permitting abortion (Baglini, J.D, 2014). This reason could vary from being highly restrictive in cases where it’s injurious to the mother’s health; and in others it could be least restrictive, pertaining to socio-economic reasons such as the mental wellbeing of the mother (Haddad and Nour, 2009).

The United States is among those which permit elective abortion, and with the additional property of permitting it after 20 weeks, it makes the USA far from the international norms and ultra-permissive. Discussion of abortion laws in other countries, Canada is one of the seven countries that allow elective abortion at any point of pregnancy without reason while in Mexico; it differs from state to the other. The main reason for permitting abortion in all the countries is the risk of a mother’s health but only in first the trimester of pregnancy.  Abortion has been a controversial issue with respect to religion and moral ethics thus, its opponents have challenged it openly in the courtrooms (Finer and Fine, 213). For instance, abortion laws were challenged in Mexico, but the law remained unchanged. In Chile, the government started a program to prevent unplanned pregnancies and distributed contraceptives among females but, the legal Tribunal terminated this plan (Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project, 2008).    

The quantitative methodology will be used to study statistical data of abortion ratio in different countries, which have strict or linnet abortion laws. The nature of this research will be descriptive and data will be gathered from numerous online resources for instance CDC home webpage for the data of abortions in the USA and for the rest of the Countries from WHO (World Health Organization). Conclusively, among 198 countries USA is prominently a pro-abortion nation, which favors elective abortion after 20 weeks of gestations (Baglini, J.D, 2014). The rest of them require reason with little or high level of restrictions after the first trimester of pregnancy.