Timeline of reproductive rights legislation

Main article: reproductive rights

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 pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health. 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. 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).

17th century to 19th century

• 1765 – Post-quickening abortion was no longer considered homicide in England, but William Blackstone called it "a very heinous misdemeanor".
• 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.
• 1842 – The Shogunate in Japan bans induced abortion in Edo. The law does not affect the rest of the country.
• 1861 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Offences against the Person Act 1861 which outlaws abortion.
• The Parliament of Canada unifies criminal law in all provinces, banning abortion.^{[citation needed]}
• 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. (see also advertisement of abortion services).
• 1820–1900 – Through the efforts primarily of physicians in the American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions in the U.S. were outlawed.

• 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.
• 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.

1920s to 1960s

• 1920 – Lenin legalized all abortions in the Soviet Union (Banned again in 1936).^{[citation needed]}
• 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.
• 1935 – Nazi Germany amended its eugenics law, Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, to promote abortion for women who have congenital and genetic disorders, or whose unborn fetuses have such hereditary disorders.
• 1935 – Iceland became the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion under limited circumstances.
• 1936 – Joseph Stalin reversed Lenin's legalization of abortion in the Soviet Union to increase population growth.
• 1936 – Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the SS, creates the "Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion". Himmler hoped to reverse a decline in the "Aryan" birthrate which he attributed to homosexuality among men and abortion among German women.
• 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.
• 1955 - Abortion legalized again in the Soviet Union.
• 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, banned all abortion.
• 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 ALI Model Penal Code (MPC).
• 1968 – Georgia and Maryland reformed their abortion laws based on the ALI MPC.
• 1969 – Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, New Mexico and Oregon, and reformed their abortion laws based on the ALI MPC.
• 1969 – Canada 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.
• 1969–1973 – The Jane Collective operated in Chicago, offering illegal abortions.

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 MPC.
• 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.
• 1972 – Florida reformed its abortion law based on the ALI MPC.
• 1972 - US Supreme court decision in Eisenstadt v. Baird extends Griswold v. Connecticut birth control privacy rights to unmarried couples
• 1973 – The U.S. Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, struck down state criminal abortion statutes "...that excepts from criminality only a lifesaving procedure on behalf of the mother, without regard to pregnancy stage and without recognition of the other interests involved,...". The Court held that only a "compelling state interest" justified regulations limiting the individual right to privacy and devised a trimester framework to balance the interests involved.
• 1973–1980 – France (1975), West Germany (1976), New Zealand (1977), Italy (1978), and the Netherlands (1980) legalized abortion in limited circumstances.
• 1978 - US Federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed, prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
• 1979 – The People's Republic of China enacted a one-child policy, to alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems in China, 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.
• 1988 – France legalized the "abortion pill" mifepristone (RU-486).
• 1988 – Canada's abortion law (which allowed abortions in some circumstances but required approval of a committee of doctors) is ruled unconstitutional. From this date, there is no legal restriction on abortion in Canada.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 that the Constitution of South Africa does not forbid abortions.
• 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).
• 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. President Cavaco Silva signed the measure into effect in April, 2007.
• 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.
• 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.

See also

• History of the birth control movement in the United States
• List of sex-related court cases in the United States

External links

• (Spanish) Los anticonceptivos en la Antigüedad Clásica