Abortion Restrictions Around the Globe
Fury Basso-Davis | April 10, 2025
Around the world, 24 countries have a complete abortion ban, leaving 90 million, roughly 5% of all women, without abortion access. The 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade has been mirrored around the globe, with a rise in pro-life movements coinciding with right-leaning political shifts. However, abortion rights activists around the world have successfully pushed for less restrictive laws on abortion in the broader fight for women’s rights.
In North Carolina, abortion is legal up to 12 weeks without any restrictions, according to Planned Parenthood. In cases such as rape or incest, abortion is legal up to 20 weeks, and up to 24 weeks if the fetus has a life threatening abnormality.
“Twelve weeks is insane, you don't even know,” Carly McCabe, a freshman at Warren Wilson College (WWC), said. “Then you're suddenly like, oh, my God, your access is gone.”
At Warren Wilson College (WWC), the Wellness Crew offers pregnancy tests and Plan B. This emergency contraceptive tablet is taken, preferably within 72 hours following unprotected sex, to prevent pregnancy. The earlier it is taken, the more effective it is, says WebMD. The WWC Health Center can connect anyone in need of abortion resources with Planned Parenthood.
“I also feel extremely privileged to be on this campus because, in the event of something like that [pregnancy] happening, there are so many resources,” McCabe said. “We have Wellness; even at the library they have abortion doula resources… I feel like we're in such a good place to be in, in a place where abortion is so restricted.”
McCabe organized protests for reproductive rights in Maine with her friends when she was a sophomore in high school and was contacted via social media by Planned Parenthood.
“A bunch of my friends organized for reproductive rights in Maine independently, and Planned Parenthood reached out to me after that,” McCabe said. “I think…Planned Parenthood reaching out with their support was helpful.”
The quality and safety of abortion procedures vary between countries where abortion is legal and countries that have high restrictions on abortion. In countries where there are looser laws around abortion, 90% of them are considered safe to get one, compared to a score of 25% in countries where abortion is banned. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 5 to 13% of maternal deaths worldwide are due to complications from unsafe abortions, the vast majority of which occur in developing countries.
The status of abortion varies by region of the world, and a large majority of countries allow abortion. About 100 countries have restrictions that permit abortion in certain situations, such as risks to a woman’s physical or mental health or fetal anomalies, reports the Center on Foreign Relations (CFR). According to Time Magazine more than 50 countries and regions allow abortion in cases where a woman’s health is at risk, and others have exceptions for rape, incest or fetal abnormalities.
For example, in Brazil abortion is illegal unless the situation includes rape, risks to the mother’s life or when the fetus has severe birth defects such asanencephaly (missing a part of the brain or the skull). According to Time, the woman needs approval from a doctor and at least three other clinical experts in these cases.
Strict abortion laws in El Salvador, which were introduced in 1988 by conservative parts of the Catholic Church, have led to dozens of women who have had abortions being found guilty of “aggravated homicide” even when it comes to miscarriages, says Time.
The U.S. became one of the first countries to liberalize its abortion laws with the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, according to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, states such as Oklahoma have passed legislation that bans abortion after six weeks, with the exception of life-threatening pregnancies, says The Center For Reproductive Rights. As said by PBS, this law is similar to one passed in Texas in 2021, which prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, around 6 weeks.
“I made so many random friends [who were] women who were like 50s, or even in their 60s, and they were like, ‘I remember before Roe was the law of the land,’ and, ‘I don't want this. This is terrifying that they remember a time before and how dangerous that was,’...I think it’s insane that our grandmothers are having to watch this happen again.” McCabe says.
In 2022, over 60 Planned Parenthood facilities and doctors' offices have shut down their abortion services due to the possible criminal penalties such as imprisonment, reports the New York Times. Clinics have turned their focus to other services, such as parental care and birth control.
“Planned Parenthood provides so many other resources: they provide pregnancy resources, trans healthcare gender affirming care, they provide all of these things that are so important, and it's so wild to think that because of abortion restriction, and restriction on trans healthcare, Planned Parenthood is going to close down in so many different places and already are closing down,” McCabe said.