Its study looked at one part of each country’s law - the baseline period during which elective abortions are legal. The Lozier Institute took a narrow approach. “Some have suggested that the European laws are more permissive because of their various exceptions, but this strikes me as mere speculation, because to assess that claim we would need to compare how such exceptions are interpreted and enforced alongside the Mississippi law’s exceptions.” “On its face, a 15-week limit is more permissive than a shorter limit,” said Carter Snead, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. What one makes of those exceptions influences the comparison between Mississippi and Europe. But nearly all those countries have exceptions that extend the period, often as long as 22 weeks. The great majority of European countries - 27 by PolitiFact’s count - have a basic cutoff point of 12 weeks. (Northern Ireland, the other part of the United Kingdom, is included.) In the Netherlands, a doctor has to agree with the woman’s claim that she faces a “distressed situation.” The Lozier Institute study counts the Netherlands, but excludes Britain. In Britain, two medical professionals have to agree that a woman’s mental or physical health is at risk.
This definition eliminated eight countries, including Britain (with a 24-week cutoff) and Finland (with a range of cutoffs from 12 to 20 weeks), because, the authors argued, the laws there required women to provide “some” justification for an abortion beyond it being their choice.īut their definition of “elective” can be subjective. As the Lozier Institute defines it, it means when a woman can seek an abortion without meeting certain conditions. The authors made it clear that they weren’t looking at every European nation, just those that they consider to allow elective abortions. Chief Justice John Roberts referred to it during oral arguments. Reeves’ office told us his data came from a report by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion study center. Reeves’ numbers are not as solid as he suggests. PolitiFact counted at least 15 countries where that could happen, with potentially 11 additional ones. Reeves relied on one analysis, but that study made no allowances for broad exceptions in countries’ laws that could extend the cutoff point for a legal abortion well past the 15-week mark. There are different ways of categorizing abortion laws in Europe. Supreme Court leaves Texas 6-week abortion ban in effect but allows some challenges to proceed It would be allowed to protect the life of the woman or if there was “a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” A major bodily function includes “functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, and digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine and reproductive functions.” The statute provides narrow exceptions for abortion beyond 15 weeks.
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