UAE to permit abortions in rape and incest cases in landmark legal reform

Experts say move is a progressive step that will protect women's health

Shireena Al Nowais
Jun 19, 2024

The UAE is to permit women to undergo abortions in cases where the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. The decision marks a key milestone in the UAE's evolving abortion laws, with experts saying it will serve to bolster the health and safety of women living in the Emirates.

The Cabinet Resolution No. (44) of 2024 related to the Medical Liability law states that abortion is allowed "if the pregnancy is the result of intercoCrimes and Penalties Lawurse with a female against her will, without her consent, or without adequate volition" and "if the person who caused the pregnancy is an ancestor of the woman or one of her mahram [ineligible for marriage] relatives".

Continued: https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/uae/2024/06/20/uae-to-permit-abortions-in-rape-and-incest-cases-in-landmark-legal-reform/

19.06.2024

News

abortion law reform

Byron James

Crimes and Penalties Law

Dr Paul Bosio

Ministry of Health and Prevention

rape and abortion

rape and incest exceptions

A Review of Exceptions in State Abortions Bans: Implications for the Provision of Abortion Services

Mabel Felix , Laurie Sobel , and Alina Salganicoff, KFF
Published: May 18, 2023

Abortion is currently banned in 14 states and many other states have attempted to ban or severely restrict access to abortion. Nearly all of these bans include exceptions, which generally fall into four categories: to prevent the death of the pregnant person, when there is risk to the health of the pregnant person, when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, and when there is a lethal fetal anomaly.

In practice, health and life exceptions to bans have often proven to be unworkable, except in the most extreme circumstances, and have sometimes prevented physicians from practicing evidence-based medicine.

Continued: https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/a-review-of-exceptions-in-state-abortions-bans-implications-for-the-provision-of-abortion-services/

18.05.2023

Research

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emergency abortions

lethal abnormalities

life of the woman exception

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United States

Human Rights

Law

Republicans Are Using Exceptions to Sell Their Abortion Bans. It’s a Scam.
Exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergencies are incredibly hard for pregnant people to actually use—and that’s a feature, not a bug.

By Carter Sherman
April 27, 2023

This week, North Dakota’s governor signed into law one of the country’s most extreme abortion bans. It outlaws almost all abortions—and only allows people to get abortions in cases of rape or incest if they undergo the procedure within the first six weeks of pregnancy.

The ban is, for now, an act of political theater. No one is going to an abortion clinic in North Dakota, because the last clinic in the state moved to Minnesota months ago. But the exceptions in the ban are also likely meaningless. Many people do not even realize that they are pregnant at six weeks, and many sexual assault survivors can take far longer to come forward, if they ever do.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4a3wvq/republicans-abortion-ban-exceptions

27.04.2023

Opinion

abortion exceptionalism

near-total abortion ban

rape and incest exceptions

USA – Most abortion bans include exceptions. In practice, few are granted

Jan. 21, 2023
By Amy Schoenfeld Walker, The New York Times

Last summer, a Mississippi woman sought an abortion after, she said, a friend had raped her. Her state prohibits most abortions but allows them for rape victims. Yet she could not find a doctor to provide one.

In September, an Indiana woman learned that a fetal defect meant her baby would die shortly after birth, if not sooner. Her state’s abortion ban included an exception for such cases, but she was referred to Illinois or Michigan.

Continued: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/most-abortion-bans-include-exceptions-in-practice-few-are-granted/

USA – Onslaught of new abortion restrictions looms in reddest of states

New state legislative sessions likely to bring fresh efforts to restrict, penalize or altogether ban the procedure

Poppy Noor
Tue 13 Dec 2022

In Nebraska, a total abortion ban could be on the horizon. In Florida, the gestational limit for abortions could drop from 15 weeks to 12. Elsewhere, lawmakers have abortion pills in their sights. When Roe v Wade fell, most states were no longer in legislative session, meaning the term during which they usually write and pass bills had ended. In January, state legislatures will reconvene in an entirely new reality, one where conservative lawmakers are no longer constrained by the constitutional right to abortion once assured by Roe.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/13/abortion-restrictions-us-state-legislatures

13.12.2022

Featured

News

anti-choice restrictions

criminalization of abortion

Elizabeth Nash

Katie Glenn

rape and incest exceptions

Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America

Focusing on ‘Exceptions’ Misses the True Harm of Abortion Bans

We cannot lose sight of this simple truth: Abortion bans are extreme and harmful because they ban abortion, period.

12/13/2022
by ELIZABETH NASH

If you’re following the debate around the total bans on abortion in place in states across the country, you might think what makes them extreme and harmful is whether they have certain exceptions, like those for people experiencing life-threatening pregnancy complications. Harrowing stories about people in these circumstances in Texas, Louisiana and more continue to generate huge media attention because they so clearly expose the depravity of anti-abortion policies.

But this overwhelming focus on whether bans have exceptions and whether people can get abortions in extreme situations distorts our perception of what is actually happening in states that ban abortion—which is that abortion bans are extreme and harmful because they ban abortion, period.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2022/12/13/abortion-ban-exceptions-rape-incest-health-life/

13.12.2022

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rape and incest exceptions

United States

Health

Human Rights

Vast majority of Republicans support abortion exceptions for rape, incest and mother’s health

A new survey shows broad bipartisan support for abortion exemptions, including in states that have restricted the procedure.

Oct. 17, 2022
By Stephanie Perry, Marc Trussler, Josh Clinton and John Lapinski

A month before the midterm elections, most Americans say abortion is important to their vote. And while the two parties are deeply divided on the issue, a new survey shows broad bipartisan support for abortion rights in cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s health is seriously endangered.

Eight in 10 American adults say abortion is important to their vote in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, including a 56% majority who say it is very important, according to a Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies (PORES)/SurveyMonkey survey released Monday of nearly 22,000 American adults.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/vast-majority-republicans-support-abortion-exceptions-rape-incest-moth-rcna52237

17.10.2022

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Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies

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Law

Exceptions to Abortion Bans May Be Hard for Women to Access

‘In terms of how these things work in practice, they don't,’ says one expert regarding exceptions to abortion bans due to rape or health risk.

By Sharon Lurye
June 3, 2022

Abortion is a divisive issue in America’s culture, but there is something that the country largely agrees on: Even if a state bans abortion, four out of five Americans agree that there should be exceptions to the law if the mother’s life or health is in danger, and for victims of rape and incest.

Yet people rarely discuss how such exceptions would work in the real world. Who would decide whether a pregnant person’s life is truly at risk? What would survivors need to do to prove they were assaulted? A close reading of anti-abortion laws in 18 states reveals that even with these legal safeguards in place, many people will still face significant hurdles to getting an abortion in cases of rape, incest and medical emergencies.

Continued: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2022-06-03/why-exceptions-to-abortion-bans-may-be-hard-for-women-to-access

USA – The New Abortion Restriction No One is Talking About

Anti-abortion laws have traditionally allowed an exception to protect the “life of the mother.” Not anymore.

Opinion by MICHELE DEMARCO
04/28/2022

In 1942, my grandmother lay in a hospital bed in center city Philadelphia waiting to die. She was 26 years old, happily married, and pregnant with her first child. Only something went horribly wrong in the last trimester, and suddenly, both she and the baby were in a fight for life.

My grandfather, distraught but resolved, begged the attending physicians to do whatever it took to save my grandmother’s life, even if that meant the life inside her wouldn’t survive. But in those days that wasn’t always the practice; this was also a Catholic hospital, which forbade such a practice because it was considered tantamount to abortion. My grandfather was told she would be kept comfortable, and they would monitor both mother and baby, but that nothing would be done to privilege her life over that of their unborn child. In the end, my grandmother pulled through — barely — but sadly, the baby did not.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/28/the-new-abortion-restriction-no-one-is-talking-about-00028171