Abortion And Its Crisis
Abortion is the process of terminating a pregnancy so it does not end with the birth of a baby. It is a controversial topic amongst many cultures and countries around the world, and it is still widely debated.
Legislation
Abortion laws across the world are diverse, with many different factors taken into account, and heavily influenced by religion and cultural values. The right to life and reproductive health is both used to justify the ban for and against abortion. Across much of Europe, abortion is legal, with the exception of some countries like Poland and Ireland, where women can only get an abortion in the case of their mental or physical health being in danger or rape. Despite abortion being legal in most European countries certain conditions still have to be met, for example in France an abortion is legal on request up to 12 weeks after conception and illegal thereafter, unless the pregnancy presents a grave threat to the child or mother. Similar conditions also exist across much of Europe.
There are many countries where abortion is outright illegal, even in cases of rape or a danger being presented to the mother’s life. Such countries, such as Chile, have received criticism from world bodies such as the UN for their restrictive abortion policies.
Crisis
Abortion has received much debate throughout society, especially in the United States. Abortion isn’t a contended issue in Europe, where much of the public opinion is favourable towards it. In the US, abortion was made legal in 1973 after the Roe vs Wade Supreme Court Case, which struck down states rights to determine legality of abortion, and ever since it has become a controversial topic amongst Americans. In a survey, 42% of Americans said they were very concerned with abortion and 32% claimed they were fairly concerned, and this issue was given more importance than issues such as minority rights, censorship and population growth. Also in a 2014 poll, 46% identified as pro-life and 47% identified as pro-choice.
This split amongst the American population has led to various states having anti-abortion rules, which seeks to prohibit the access to an abortion. In many states, there are very few clinics for women to access for abortion, laws such as in Louisiana allowing state health officials to suspend the license of outpatient abortion facilities.
Abortion is a very controversial topic in many parts of the world, where its legality is contended fiercely, such as in the US. Whereas in other parts of the world, the legality of abortion is taken as granted and is not thought of as a controversy. These opinions are all influenced by religion and culture, which makes abortion laws widely difference from region to region, even in the same country.