In
ancient times abortion was a wide-spread means of birth-control. Later it was
prohibited by most great religions of the world, but in the western world it
was not treated as a crime up to the 19th century. Only in this century the
British parliament and later several states of the USA prohibited abortion.
A life threatening situation for the mother, and in some other cases also lesser risks to health were the only exception to the prohibition of abortion. Today this is called the medical indication.
Abortion on a simple request of the pregnant woman was for the first time legally accepted in post-revolutionary Russia in 1920. After the Second World War Japan and several eastern European countries followed suit. In the 1960s a liberalisation of abortion legislation took place in many countries. There were three reasons for this: First, many infants were murdered, and illegal abortion bound up with a high risk for the health of the women involved; secondly the population of the world grew at high speed; and thirdly women's movements became stronger and stronger.
In 1980 20% of the world's population lived in countries where abortion was only allowed in order to save the life of the mother. About 40% of the world's population lived in countries with more or less liberal laws. These countries allowed abortion to save the life of the mother, after rape or incest, in the case of social problems like financial difficulties or in order to stop the birth of children defective for genetical or other reasons. The other 40% lived in countries where abortion was possible simply on the request of the woman. There are, however, restrictions as to the stadium in which an abortion may be undertaken.
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