Comparative abortion law; the living abortus

Recent surveys indicate a trend towards the liberalization of abortion legislation in industrialized countries. The motivation behind this movement has been said to include the need to reduce the mortality and morbidity associated with illegal abortion; the provision of access to abortion for those who are economically deprived; and the urge to secure the right of all women to decide on pregnancy and motherhood [1]. Such legislation is, however, usually accompanied by procedural and administrative conditions which effectively limit the actual practice and availability of abortion. At the same time, access to abortion is becoming increasingly restricted during the later stages of pregnancy. According to Leenen [1], this can be’ s een as a balancing of the rights of the woman against the protection of the fetus’. Indeed, postviability protection of the fetus in utero only cedes to the overriding right of the woman to treatment where her life is in danger — a right which would be implicit through the general principles of the criminal law even in those countries which permit of no explicit exceptions to the illegality of abortion [2].