Here's What Happened When Other Countries Rolled Back Abortion Rights

El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Poland offer a window into a post-Roe world.

With the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the United States has become the fourth country in the world to roll back abortion rights since 1994. Following the Court's decision, almost all abortions will become illegal in 13 states as so-called trigger laws took effect.

Since 1998, El Salvador's constitution has enshrined into law the idea that personhood begins at conception. All abortions are prohibited under the law, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or danger to the mother's life. Over 140 women in the last 24 years have been arrested and imprisoned under El Salvador's abortion law, some of whom did not have an abortion but experienced a miscarriage. Charged with aggravated homicide, some women have received decadeslong prison sentences. El Salvador's abortion ban has also disproportionately impacted poor women, indigenous women, and rural women, according to abortion rights advocates.

Nicaragua similarly implemented a total ban on abortion in November 2006. This overturned a long-standing law that allowed "therapeutic" abortions when the life of a pregnant woman was in danger, provided she had the consent of three doctors. According to a study conducted by Ipas, a reproductive rights group, 1,300 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 become pregnant through rape each year in the country.

Comprehensive data are hard to come by, given crackdowns by the government of President Daniel Ortega, but the Ipas report also raised concerns about frequent cases of pregnancy-related deaths. By October 2007, at least 80 women had reportedly died as a result of the abortion ban, according to Human Rights Watch. Dozens of women died in successive years, according to Amnesty International. Those numbers are expected to have continued climbing amid economic downturns in the country.

Doctors in Nicaragua have described a chilling effect on obstetric care. Afraid of potential criminal liability, doctors often refuse to treat women experiencing hemorrhages, even post-menopausal hemorrhaging, as they worry they might be charged as accomplices to abortions. Women have also been driven to alternative methods of terminating their pregnancies, including the usage of herbal medicines and underground abortion clinics.

Though Nicaragua rarely prosecutes women under the law, women still have been the targets of regular criminal complaints. One study found that hundreds of women have been investigated since the 2006 law took effect, many reported by partners and family members.

Poland, one of the first countries in Europe to allow abortion in limited cases, has seen a rapid reversal in its abortion laws. First legalized in 1932, abortion was initially allowed in Poland just for medical purposes. Later, Poland's communist government introduced several liberalizing reforms to the law, increasing access and legal rights to abortions.

https://reason.com/2022/06/30/heres-what-happened-when-other-countries-rolled-back-abortion-rights/