Abortion and the Law: From International Comparison to Legal Policy

This volume presents a compact summary of the results of a world-wide survey on abortion law and practice in a total of 64 countries, carried out by the Max-Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiberg, Germany. The work provides a summary of social conditions and historical developments, followed by a detailed comparison of legal regulations, and is supplemented by statistics on the termination of pregnancy. The final chapter contains reflections from a legal policy perspective. Important findings, insights and trends are summarized and guidelines for reform are provided. The book concludes with a proposal for a law to regulate the termination of pregnancy, and although this proposal was intended primarily as a contribution to the legal political debate in Germany, it could also be used as the catalyst for debate on reform in other countries.