United Nations

                        Population Division

                 of the United Nations Secretariat

                    World Abortion Policies 1999


            To save  To        To
            the      preserve  preserve  Rape    Foetal   Economic   On
Region and  woman's  physical  mental    or      impair-  or social  request
country     life     health    health    incest  ment     reasons    (1)
----------  -------  --------  --------  ------  -------  ---------  -------

Total          193       193       193     193     193         193      193
countries
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Permitted    189       122       120      83      76          63       52
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Not permitted  4        71        73     110     117         130      141
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Developed       48        48        48      48      48          48       48
Countries
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Permitted     46        42        41      39      39          36       31
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Not permitted  2         6         7       9       9          12       17
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Developing     145       145       145     145     145         145      145
countries
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Permitted    143        80        79      44      37          27       21
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Not Permitted  2        65        66     101     108         118      124
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes:
-----

Grounds on which abortion is permitted:
     from Abortion Policies: An International Overview (United
     Nations publication, forthcoming);


(1)  For purposes of this table, if an abortion is authorized on
     request, it is presumed that an abortion can be performed
     during the period when it is authorized on request on any of
     the grounds listed, even if the law does not specifically
     mention such a ground.


This wall chart was prepared by the Population Division of the
Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations
Secretariat. It was facilitated by the close cooperation among
United Nations bodies. In particular, the contribution of the
United Nations Population Fund in providing financial support for
this publication is gratefully acknowledged. The assistance of
experts who reviewed early drafts and provided additional
information and comments is greatly appreciated.

Although for many countries current information on the status of
abortion policy is easy to obtain, for some countries that is not
the case. Information on some countries is incomplete; in others
it is noticeably lacking. Readers are therefore invited to send
information, comments or corrections they deem useful to the
Director, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social
Affairs, United Nations Secretariat, New York, N.Y. 10017



United Nations publication, (ST/ESA/SER.A/178)
Sales No. E.99.XIII.5
Copyright (C) United Nations 1999