Global progress in abortion law reform: a comparative legal analysis since the International Conference on Population...

As 2024 marked the 30th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, which recognised unsafe abortion as a human rights and public health imperative, it is an apt time to assess global progress on abortion law reform. By mapping changes to abortion laws for 199 nations and semi-autonomous territories from 1994 to 2023 and coupling this with population data, this article demonstrates that the past three decades have been marked by an overwhelming trend towards the liberalisation of abortion laws across all regions, resulting in over 825 million women of reproductive age living under expanded grounds for legal abortion. Notably, a potential sea change has occurred in abortion law reform in the past five years, with countries increasingly liberalising their laws to permit abortion on request instead of adopting more incremental approaches. More countries have reformed their laws to permit abortion on request in the past five years than in the 25 preceding years. Yet, significant disparities continue to exist across regions. Countries banning abortion altogether or narrowly permitting abortion when the pregnant person's life is at risk are concentrated in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, including in resource-scarce contexts where abortion seekers are doubly disadvantaged by restrictive laws and limited access to healthcare, including post-abortion care. It is critical that law and policymakers and public health authorities recognise that restrictive abortion laws are out of step with global norms and support progress towards the liberalisation of abortion laws, particularly towards permitting abortion on request.