Current Events > Are there any 1st world , very industrialized countries where abortion is

(+) Yeah! (+)

severely restricted? Can you think of any?

Depends on the state I guess.

On a national level, the UK except Northern Ireland, Japan, Hong Kong, and most Islamic states all outlaw purely elective abortion. YMMV on how strictly it is enforced.

Serious_Cat posted...

On a national level, the UK except Northern Ireland, Japan, Hong Kong, and most Islamic states all outlaw purely elective abortion. YMMV on how strictly it is enforced.

japan and hong kong are? isn't the uk not very strict on abortion or do you mean that only northern ireland is strict about it

CedarPointcp posted...

japan and hong kong are? isn't the uk not very strict on abortion or do you mean that only northern ireland is strict about it

NI is the only place where it's technically legal in the UK but apparently not strictly enforced to a point. Interestingly purely elective abortions are illegal in Hong Kong but they still have the highest abortion rate in the industrialized world. Japan was even fairly hard on contraceptives until fairly recently.

Source is Wikipedia, so I'm more than willing to concede to a more concrete source for any of it.

CedarPointcp posted...

japan and hong kong are? isn't the uk not very strict on abortion or do you mean that only northern ireland is strict about it

I wouldn't call UK law 'strict' on abortion. You can get an abortion up to 24 weeks practically on demand.

After 24 weeks, you need a medical reason, such as risk to the mother, or severe disability. Note that risk to the mother can include mental health reasons.

Abortion was illegal in Northern Ireland until 2019. Now it's on demand until 12 weeks, and legal after for medical reasons.

N. Ireland is by far the least progressive part of the UK. Their attitudes on things like race and homosexuality are like something from the 1950s.

ai123 posted...

I wouldn't call UK law 'strict' on abortion. You can get an abortion up to 24 weeks practically on demand.

After 24 weeks, you need a medical reason, such as risk to the mother, or severe disability. Note that risk to the mother can include mental health reasons.

Abortion was illegal in Northern Ireland until 2019. Now it's on demand until 12 weeks, and legal after for medical reasons.

N. Ireland is by far the least progressive part of the UK. Their attitudes on things like race and homosexuality are like something from the 1950s.

wasn't there that case of that uk woman who got a very late abortion and she was supposed to be jailed for it, for like a yr, it never happened? So you didn't agree , in that case?

CedarPointcp posted...

wasn't there that case of that uk woman who got a very late abortion and she was supposed to be jailed for it, for like a yr, it never happened? So you didn't agree , in that case?

That was a woman who had a zoom consultation during the pandemic. She claimed to be less than 10 weeks pregnant when she was 34 weeks. She got the pills and induced a miscarriage.

She was originally sentenced to two years. The judge was reluctant, but felt he had no choice under the law. However, the sentence was reviewed (as they usually are) and she was released.

Her personal circumstances were complex, and most people felt sympathy for her. There was nothing to be gained by jailing her.

Unlike in America, all parties in the (mainland) UK are in favour of abortion and aren't seeking to restrict it at all.

The only exception, as mentioned above, is Northern Ireland. It's a very hot topic over there. Their law was only changed in 2019, and that was forced upon them by Westminster due to the fact that NI hadn't had a functional government since 2017.

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