- In recent days it has been mentioned that the United States could completely ban abortion.
- On the other hand, in recent years it has been decriminalized in several Latin American countries.
- Other Asian nations such as South Korea and Thailand have also passed abortion regulations.
Within health there are some issues that divide opinions among the doctors themselves. assisted dying and regulation of abortion top the list and to date it has not been possible to achieve a general consensus. The clearest example is the position of governments around the world.
This topic resurfaced this week due to a news that was released this week. A “draft” hinted that the United States Supreme Court could invalidate its own Roe vs. Wade of 1973. This document legalized abortion “until the fetus is viable” in the country.
Some seek prohibition and others regulation
Since then, reproductive rights have come under great pressure in some parts of the country in recent times. An analysis by the Guttmacher Institute estimates that 26 of the 50 US states — most of them located in the western and southwestern parts of the country — would take advantage of Roe vs. Wade to ban abortion altogether.
However, in the rest of the world the opposite happens. In recent years, several nations have achieved the decriminalization and legalization of abortion. In Latin America, in February of this year, the Colombian Constitutional Court legalized the procedure until the 24th week of pregnancy.
While the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico declared the criminalization of abortion unconstitutional in September of last year, although the sentence did not legalize the interruption of pregnancy throughout the country.
Although abortion is allowed in Mexico City and some other states, in most states there are still regulations that prohibit it. For its part, at the end of 2020 Argentina became the largest country in Latin America to legalize abortion. The new law, initially approved by the Chamber of Deputies on December 11 and confirmed by the Senate on December 30, legalized the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in the first 14 weeks of gestation.
In Asia, countries like South Korea or Thailand have also joined this trend. Since January 2021, the former legalized abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy, while the latter did the same up to the 12th week.
What is the position of the medical community?
Although the opinion of women is very important in this matter, the voice of doctors must also be taken into account. In the end, it is about the specialists who should participate or not in this type of practice.
The Medscape portal presented the results of its study Medical Ethics Report 2020: Mexico. For its preparation, 2,403 doctors and 176 residents were surveyed online. They were asked various questions regarding their daily practice and about topics considered controversial. What was obtained is that 65 percent said they were in favor of regulating abortion throughout the country.
On the other hand, according to a survey conducted in 27 countries around the world and recently published by Ipsosthere is a growing trend in favor of the voluntary termination of pregnancy in Latin American countries and a decreasing support in European countries.
Despite the fact that Europe is the region of the world where the legality of abortion finds the greatest support, it is also where support has decreased the most since 2014. Such is the case of countries such as Sweden, France, the United Kingdom or Spain, where, despite the fall registered, a support for this practice of 80 percent or higher is maintained.
In the Spanish case in particular, the voluntary interruption of pregnancy has 80 percent support. Despite this large majority, the country has seen support for legal abortion drop eight percentage points from 2014.