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Abortion

Abortion, termination of pregnancy before the fetus is capable of independent life. When expulsion from the womb occurs after the fetus becomes viable capable of life, usually at the end of six months of pregnancy, it is technically a premature birth. The practice of abortion was widespread in ancient times as a method of birth control. Later it was restricted or forbidden by most world religions, but it was not considered an offense in secular law until the 19th century. During that century, first English Parliament and then American state legislatures prohibited induced abortion to protect women from surgical procedures that were at the time unsafe, commonly stipulation a threat to the woman’s life as the sole exception to the prohibition. Occasionally the exception was enlarged to include danger to the mother’s health as well. Legislative action in the 20th century has been aimed at permitting the termination of unwanted pregnancies for medical, social, or private reasons.

Abortions at the woman’s request were the first allowed by the Soviet Union in 1920. Followed by Japan and several East European nations after WW II. In the late 1960’s, Liberalized abortion regulations became widespread. The impetus fo

r the change was threefold:(1) Infanticide and the high maternal death rate associated with illegal abortions, (2) a rapidly expanding world population, (3) the growing feminist movement. Under the criminal code. R.S.C. 970 C.C-34 abortion constitutes a criminal offense, section 159(2)(C) makes it an offense to offer or have for gale or disposal, to publish or advertise means, instructions or medicine intended or represented to cause abortion or miscarriage. Section 221(1) makes the act of causing death to a child who has not become a human being, in the act of birth, equivalent to murder. Abortion constitutes an indictable offense. Section 251 (4) allows permission for a therapeutic abortion to be obtained from a competent committee, fulfilling strict regulations, with the operation performed by a qualified physician. However, the common law defense of necessity is theoretically available for a surgical operation performed for the patient’s benefit. Until 1988, under the Canadian Criminal Code, an attempt to induce an abortion by any means was crime. The maximum penalty was life imprisonment or two years if the women herself was convicted. The law liberalized in 1969, with an amendment to the criminal code. Allowing that abortions are legal if performed by a doctor in an accredited hospital