The United States is out of the Western mainstream world when it comes to abortion restrictions, according to a new report.
The pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute analyzed the policies of European countries and noted that 47 of the 50 nations implement restrictions on the procedure after 15 weeks. Further, 27 of the countries had restrictions after 12 weeks and eight of the countries don’t allow elective abortions at all (with extremely limited exceptions).
On the other hand, the CLI notes that there’s not a single state in the U.S. that currently has enforceable limits on abortions at 15 weeks — the time lawmakers say is the gestational period during pregnancy. However, that could change in the next couple of months.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in May to take up a controversial Mississippi state law in its next term that seeks to prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, although the state’s attorney general, Lynn Fitch, has since said that she would like to see the entire 1973 Roe v. Wade decision overturned.
Lower courts have previously stricken down the law on the basis that it goes against the Roe decision ruling that the Constitution protects a pregnant woman's ability to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.
The CLI study finds "that Mississippi’s law limiting elective abortion to 15 weeks is among the mainstream in comparison to European limitations on elective abortion."
While it may not be binding in a court of law, the report could be persuasive to the 6-3 conservative majority in making the case that the current policies in the United States are far more liberal than those in Europe.
The Supreme Court will review a number of factors in making its decision: political, scientific and societal. Mississippi is making the case in its filing that factors such as heartbeats and brain activity are proof of life.
The CLI report, and others like it, could provide the societal argument, making the case that the United States is an anomaly in a world that has a much more restrictive standard for when a woman can pursue an abortion.
Alex Salvi is a foreign correspondent for Newsmax stationed in Rome, Italy. He majored in political science and interned at the U.S. House of Representatives in college before earning his law degree where he studied international and humanitarian law in places such as India, Israel, and the West Bank. He then received his master’s in journalism where he completed coursework at the European Union and was featured in a project for The New York Times. Prior to Newsmax, he hosted a nightly primetime talk show that covered the convergence of media and politics.
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