Timeline of reproductive rights legislation

Timeline of reproductive rights legislation, a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights^[1] pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health.^[2] These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence.^[3] Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization, abortion, and contraception, and protection from gender-based practices such as female genital cutting (FGC) and male genital mutilation (MGM).^[1][2][3][4]

17th century to 19th century

• End of 16th century - Sir Edward Coke formulates the "born alive rule", in common law, which holds that various criminal laws, such as homicide and assault, apply only to a child that is "born alive".
• 1765 – Post-quickening abortion is no longer considered homicide in England, but William Blackstone confirms the "born alive rule" and calls it "a very heinous misdemeanor".^[5][6]
• 1778 – In Sweden, the first Infanticide Act granted mothers the right and the means for an anonymous birth.
• 1793 – In France, Article 326 of the Code Civil legalized both anonymous and confidential births.
• 1803 – United Kingdom enacts Lord Ellenborough's Act, making abortion after quickening a capital crime, and providing lesser penalties for the felony of abortion before quickening.^[7][8]
• 1842 – The Shogunate in Japan bans induced abortion in Edo. The law does not affect the rest of the country.^[9]
• 1856 – In Sweden, an amendment to the 1778 Infanticide Act restricts the right to give birth anonymously to a mere confidential birth.
• 1861 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Offences against the Person Act 1861 which outlaws abortion.
• 1869 – Pope Pius IX declared that abortion under any circumstance was gravely immoral (mortal sin), and, that anyone who participated in an abortion in any material way had by virtue of that act excommunicated themselves (latae sententiae) from the Church.^[10]
• 1869 - The Parliament of Canada unifies criminal law in all provinces, banning abortion.^[10]
• 1873 – The passage of the Comstock Act in the United States makes it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail, including contraceptive devices and information on contraception or abortion and how to obtain them. (see also advertisement of abortion services).^[11]
• 1820–1900 – Primarily through the efforts of physicians in the American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions in the U.S. were outlawed.^[12]
• 1850–1920 – During the fight for women's suffrage in the U.S., some notable first-wave feminists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mary Wollstonecraft, opposed abortion.^[13]

1910s to 1960s

• 1918 - In the United States, Margaret Sanger was charged under the New York law against disseminating contraceptive information. On appeal, her conviction was reversed on the grounds that contraceptive devices could legally be promoted for the cure and prevention of disease.^[14]
• 1920 – Lenin legalized all abortions in the Soviet Union.^[15]
• 1931– Mexico as first country in the world legalized abortion in case of rape.^[16]
• 1932– Poland as first country in Europe outside Soviet Union legalized abortion in cases of rape and threat to maternal health.^[17]
• 1935 – Iceland became the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion under limited circumstances.^[18]
• 1935 – Nazi Germany amended its eugenics law, to promote abortion for women who have hereditary disorders.^[19] The law allowed abortion if a woman gave her permission, and if the fetus was not yet viable,^[20][21][22] and for purposes of so-called racial hygiene.^[23][24]
• 1936 – Joseph Stalin reversed most parts of Lenin's legalization of abortion in the Soviet Union to increase population growth.^[25]
• 1936 – A US federal appeals court ruled in United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries that the federal government could not interfere with doctors providing contraception to their patients.^[14]
• 1936 – Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the SS, creates the "Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion". Himmler, inspired by bureaucrats of the Race and Settlement Main Office, hoped to reverse a decline in the "Aryan" birthrate which he attributed to homosexuality among men and abortions among healthy Aryan women,^[26] which were not allowed under the 1935 law, but nevertheless practiced. Reich Secretary Martin Bormann however refused to implement law in this respect, which would revert the 1935 law.
• 1938 – In Britain, Dr. Aleck Bourne aborted the pregnancy of a young girl who had been raped by soldiers. Bourne was acquitted after turning himself in to authorities. The legal precedent of allowing abortion in order to avoid mental or physical damage was picked up by other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations.
• 1938 – Abortion legalized on a limited basis in Sweden.
• 1948 – The Eugenic Protection Act in Japan expanded the circumstances in which abortion is allowed.^[9]
• 1955 - Abortion legalized again in the Soviet Union.^[25]
• 1959– The American Law Institute (ALI) drafts a model state abortion law to make legal abortions accessible.
• 1965 – The U.S. Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut struck down one of the remaining Comstock laws, the state bans on contraception.
• 1966 – The Ceauşescu regime in Romania, in an attempt to boost the country's population, Decree 770 banned all abortion and contraception, except in very limited cases.^[27]
• 1966 – Mississippi reformed its abortion law and became the first U.S. state to allow abortion in cases of rape.
• 1967 – The Abortion Act (effective 1968) legalized abortion in the United Kingdom [except in Northern Ireland). In the U.S., California, Colorado, and North Carolina reformed their abortion laws based on the 1962 American Law Institute (ALI) Model Penal Code (MPC)
• 1968 – Georgia and Maryland reformed their abortion laws based on the ALI MPC.
• 1968– President Lyndon Johnson’s Committee on The Status of Women releases a report calling for a repeal of all abortion laws.
• 1969 – Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, New Mexico and Oregon, and reformed their abortion laws based on the ALI MPC.
• 1969– Canada passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69, which began to allow abortion for selective reasons.
• 1969 – The ruling in the Victorian case of R v Davidson defined for the first time which abortions are lawful in Australia.

1970s to present

• 1970 – Hawaii, New York, Alaska and Washington repealed their abortion laws and allowed abortion on demand; South Carolina and Virginia reformed their abortion laws based on the ALI Model Penal Code.
• 1970 – Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970 Pub.L. 91–572, which established the Public Health Service Title X program, providing family planning services for those in need.^[28][29]
• 1971– The Indian Parliament under the Prime Ministership of Indira Gandhi, passes Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 (MTP Act 1971). India thus becomes one of the earliest nations to pass this Act. The Act gains importance, considering India had traditionally been a very conservative country in these matters. Most notably there was no similar Act in several US states around the same time.^[30]
• 1972 – Florida reformed its abortion law based on the ALI MPC.
• 1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in Eisenstadt v. Baird extends Griswold v. Connecticut birth control rights to unmarried couples.
• 1973 – The U.S. Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, declared all the individual state bans on abortion during the first trimester to be unconstitutional, allowed states to regulate but not proscribe abortion during the second trimester, and allowed states to proscribe abortion during the third trimester unless abortion is in the best interest of the woman's physical or mental health. The Court legalized abortion in all trimesters when a woman's doctor believes the abortion is necessary for her physical or mental health and held that only a "compelling state interest" justified regulations limiting the individual right to privacy.
• 1973–1980 – France (1975), West Germany (1976), New Zealand (1977), Italy (1978), and the Netherlands (1980) legalized abortion in limited circumstances. (France : no elective -for non-medical reasons- abortion allowed after 10–12 weeks gestation)
• 1976–1977– Representative Henry Hyde of Illinois sponsors the Hyde Amendment, which passes, allows states to prohibit the use of Medicaid funding for abortions.
• 1978 - US Federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed, prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.^[31]
• 1979 – The People's Republic of China enacted a one-child policy, to alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems in China,^[32] encouraging many couples to have at most one child, and in some cases imposing penalties for violating the policy.
• 1979 – Ireland, Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 allowed sale of contraceptives, upon presentation of a prescription.
• 1983 – Ireland, by popular referendum, added an amendment to its Constitution recognizing "the right to life of the unborn." Abortion is still illegal in Ireland, except as urgent medical procedures to save a woman's life.
• 1985 – Ireland, Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, 1985 allowed sale of condoms and spermicides to people over 18 without having to present a prescription.
• 1985 - United Kingdom, Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 made female genital mutilation a crime throughout the UK. The Act was replaced by the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 and the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005 respectively, both of which extend the legislation to cover acts committed by UK nationals outside of the UK's borders.
• 1988 – France legalized the "abortion pill" mifepristone (RU-486).
• 1988 – In R. v. Morgentaler, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the abortion regulation which allowed abortions in some circumstances but required approval of a committee of doctors for violating a woman's constitutional "security of person"; Canadian law has not regulated abortion ever since.
• 1989– Webster v. Reproductive Health Services reinforces the state's right to prevent all publicly funded facilities from providing or assisting with abortion services.
• 1990 – The Abortion Act in the UK was amended so that abortion is legal only up to 24 weeks, rather than 28, except in unusual cases.
• 1992– In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court overturned the trimester framework in Roe v. Wade, making it legal for states to proscribe abortion after the point of fetal viability, excepting instances that would risk the woman's health.
• 1993 – Ireland Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, 1992 allowed sale of contraceptives without prescription.
• 1993 – Poland banned abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, severe congenital disorders, or threat to the life of the pregnant woman.
• 1994– Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act is passed by the United States Congress to forbid the use of force or obstruction to prevent someone from providing or receiving reproductive health services.
• 1997 – In South Africa, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1996 comes into effect, allowing abortion on demand. The Abortion and Sterilization Act, 1975, which only allowed abortions in very limited circumstances, is repealed.
• 1998 – In Christian Lawyers Association and Others v Minister of Health and Others, the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court of South Africa upholds the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, holding that the Constitution of South Africa does not forbid abortions.^[33]
• 1999 – In the United States, Congress passed a ban on intact dilation and extraction, which President Bill Clinton vetoed.
• 2000 – Mifepristone (RU-486) approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In Stenberg v. Carhart, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a Nebraska state law that banned intact dilation and extraction.
• 2003 – The U.S. enacted the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and President George W. Bush signed it into law. After the law was challenged in three appeals courts, the U.S. Supreme Court held that it was constitutional because, unlike the earlier Nebraska state law, it was not vague or overly broad. The court also held that banning the procedure did not constitute an "undue burden," even without a health exception. (see also: Gonzales v. Carhart)
• 2005 – The U.S. Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (implemented in January 2007) prevented college health centers and many health care providers from participating in the drug pricing discount program, which formerly allowed contraceptives to be sold to students and women of low income in the United States at low cost.
• 2007 – The Parliament of Portugal voted to legalize abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy. This followed a referendum that, while revealing that a majority of Portuguese voters favored legalization of early-stage abortions, failed due to low voter turnout.^[34] The second referendum passed, however, and President Cavaco Silva signed the measure into effect in April, 2007.^[35][36]
• 2007 – The government of Mexico City legalizes abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and offers free abortions. On August 28, 2008, the Mexican Supreme Court upholds the law.^[37]
• 2007 – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.^[38]
• 2008– The Australian state of Victoria passes a bill which decriminalizes abortion, making it legally accessible to women in the first 24 weeks of the pregnancy.^[39]
• 2009 – In Spain a bill decriminalizes abortion, making it legally accessible to women in the first 14 weeks of the pregnancy.^[40]
• 2010 - In Chile, came into force the Morning After Pill Law, which set the rules on information, advice and services relating to fertility regulation, allowing the free distribution of the pill in all country public clinics.^[41]
• 2011 - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services established the policy, effective 2012, that all private insurance plans are required to provide contraceptive coverage to women without a co-pay or deductible.^[42][43]
• 2012 – In the Philippines, the Congress of the Philippines passed the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 which guarantees universal access to contraception, fertility control and maternal care. The bill also mandates the teaching of sexual education in schools.^[44][45]
• 2012 – Uruguay legalizes abortion in the first trimester, making it legally accessible to women.^[46]

See also

• Birth control movement in the United States
• List of sex-related court cases in the United States
• The Eastview Birth Control Trial

References

1. Freedman, Lynn P.; Stephen L. Isaacs (Jan–Feb 1993). "Human Rights and Reproductive Choice". Studies in Family Planning (Studies in Family Planning, Vol. 24, No. 1) 24 (1): 18–30. doi:10.2307/2939211. JSTOR 2939211. PMID 8475521.
2. Cook, Rebecca J.; Mahmoud F. Fathalla (September 1996). "Advancing Reproductive Rights Beyond Cairo and Beijing". International Family Planning Perspectives (International Family Planning Perspectives, Vol. 22, No. 3) 22 (3): 115–121. doi:10.2307/2950752. JSTOR 2950752.
3. Amnesty International USA (2007). "Stop Violence Against Women: Reproductive rights". SVAW. Amnesty International USA. Retrieved 2007-12-08.
4. Template
5. William Blackstone, Commentaries, 1:120--41 (1765).
6. Blackstone, William (1979) [1765]. "Amendment IX, Document 1". Commentaries on the Laws of England 5. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 388.
7. Lord Ellenborough’s Act." (1998). The Abortion Law Homepage. Retrieved February 20, 2007.
8. Keown, John (1988). Abortion, doctors, and the law: some aspects of the legal regulation of abortion in England from 1803 to 1982. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 26. ISBN 0-521-89413-1. OCLC 49550035.
9. Status of abortion in Japan. (1967). IPPF Medical Bulletin, 1(6):3. Retrieved April 12, 2006.
10. Sixtus
11. Kevles, Daniel J. (2001-07-22). "The Secret History of Birth Control". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-10-21.
12. Mohr, James C. (1978). Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800–1900. New York: Oxford University Press US.
13. O'Beirne, Kate. (2005, January 8). "America's Earliest Feminists Opposed Abortion." Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved March 16, 2006.
14. "Biographical Note". The Margaret Sanger Papers. Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass. 1995. Retrieved 2006-10-21.
15. "population". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-14.
16. Mexico rape
17. "Rozporządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej" (PDF) (in Polish). 1932-07-11. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
18. Iceland
19. Friedlander, Henry (1995). The origins of Nazi genocide: from euthanasia to the final solution. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. p. 30. ISBN 0-8078-4675-9. OCLC 60191622.
20. Proctor, Robert E. (1989). Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 366. ISBN 0-674-74578-7. OCLC 20760638. This emendation allowed abortion only if the woman granted permission, and only if the fetus was not old enough to survive outside the womb. It is unclear if either of these qualifications was enforced.
21. Arnot, Margaret; Cornelie Usborne (1999). Gender and Crime in Modern Europe. New York City: Routledge. p. 241. ISBN 1-85728-745-2. OCLC 249726924.
22. Facing History and Ourselves. (n.d.). Timeline: Hitler's Notion of Building a Racial State. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
23. Proctor, Robert E. (1989). Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 122–123. ISBN 0-674-74578-7. OCLC 20760638. Abortion, in other words, could be allowed if it was in the interest of racial hygiene… the Nazis did allow (and in some cases even required) abortions for women deemed racially inferior… On November 10, 1938, a Luneberg court declared abortion legal for Jews.
24. Tierney, Helen (1999). Women's studies encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 589. ISBN 0-313-31072-6. OCLC 38504469. In 1939, it was announced that Jewish women could seek abortions, but non-Jewish women could not.
25. United Nations (2002). Abortion Policies: A Global Review: Oman to Zimbabwe. New York City: United Nations Publications. p. 50. ISBN 92-1-151365-0. OCLC 84347959. In its decree of 23 November 1955, the government of the former USSR repealed the general prohibition on the performance of abortions contained in the 1936 Decree.
26. "Homosexuals: Victims of the Nazi Era". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on May 24, 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
27. (Romanian) Scarlat, Sandra. "'Decreţeii': produsele unei epoci care a îmbolnăvit România" ("'Scions of the Decree': Products of an Era that Sickened Romania"), Evenimentul Zilei, May 17, 2005.
28. US Office of Population Affairs – Legislation
29. OPA: PUBLIC LAW 91-572-DEC. 24, 1970
30. Aggrawal, Anil (2006). Self Assessment and Review of Forensic Medicine. Pee Pee Publishers. pp. 235–239. ISBN 81-88867-85-3.
31. "Facts About Pregnancy Discrimination". Eeoc.gov. 2008-09-08. Retrieved 2011-06-29.
32. da Silva, Pascal Rocha (2006). "La politique de l'enfant unique en République populaire de Chine" ("The politics of one child in the People's Republic of China"). Université de Genève (University of Geneva). p. 22-8. (French)
33. Irving, Helen (2008). Gender and the constitution: equity and agency in comparative constitutional design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 205. ISBN 0-521-88108-0. OCLC 180577386.
34. nytimes.com
35. Associated Press (2007-03-10). "Portugal: Parliament Liberalizes Abortion". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
36. Timeline: Portugal, a chronicle of key events, BBC News
37. Mexican Supreme Court upholds legalized abortion law, 28 August 2008, Los Angeles Times
38. Greenhouse, Linda (April 19, 2007). "Justices Back Ban on Method of Abortion". New York Times. Retrieved August 27, 2009.
39. 10/Oct/2008 Abortion decriminalised in Victoria smh.com.au
40. Kingstone, Steve (26 September 2009). "Spain unveils abortion law change". BBC News. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
41. http://www.med.uchile.cl/2010/4009-presidenta-bachelet-promulga-ley-de-pildora-del-dia-despues.html
42. ABC News, "Birth Control Free for All: New Insurance Rules Affect Millions of Women", Aug 1, 2011
43. Reuters, "U.S. says insurers must fully cover birth control", Aug 1, 2011
44. Maila Ager (December 19, 2012). "RH Bill passes bicam". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
45. Karl John Reyes, Lira Dalangin Fernandez (December 19, 2012). "Senate, House ratify bicameral panel version of RH Bill". TV5. InterAKSYON. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
46. "Uruguay Senate Approves First-Trimester Abortions". NY Times. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2014.

External links

• (Spanish) Los anticonceptivos en la Antigüedad Clásica