This is a timeline of reproductive rights legislation, a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health. These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization, abortion, and contraception, and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).
17th century–19th century
End of 16th century – In England Sir Edward Coke formulated the "born alive rule" in common law, which holds that various criminal laws, such as homicide and assault, apply only to a child that is "born alive". 1765 – In England post-quickening abortion is no longer considered homicide in England, but William Blackstone confirms the "born alive rule" and calls it "a very heinous misdemeanor".William Blackstone, Commentaries , 1:120--41 (1765). 1778 – In Sweden, the first Infanticide Act granted mothers the right and the means for an anonymous birth. 1793 – In the French First Republic, Article 326 of the Code Civil legalized both anonymous and confidential births. 1803 – The United Kingdom enacted Lord Ellenborough's Act, making abortion after quickening a capital crime, and providing lesser penalties for the felony of abortion before quickening.Lord Ellenborough's Act . (1998). The Abortion Law Homepage. Retrieved February 20, 2007. 1810 – The 1810 Napoleonic Code of the First French Empire punished any person who procured an abortion with imprisonment. 1821 – A Connecticut law targeted apothecaries who sold "poisons" to women for the purpose of inducing an abortion. 1827 – An Illinois law prohibited the sale of drugs that could induce abortions. The law classed these medications as a "poison". The 1827 law was the first in the nation to impose criminal penalties in connection with abortion before quickening. 1827 – In New York State the first statute to criminalize abortion was enacted which made post-quickening abortions a felony and made pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor. 1842 – In Japan the Tokugawa shogunate banned induced abortion in Edo. The law did not affect the rest of the country. 1845 – New York passed a statute that said women who had abortions could be given a prison sentence of three months to a year. They were one of the few states at the time to have laws punishing women for procuring abortions. 1849 – The Wisconsin state legislature passed a law that criminalized abortion, making it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion on a woman, no matter the circumstances of her pregnancy including pregnancy as a result of rape or incest, unless the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. 1854 – Texas passed an abortion law that made performing an abortion, except in the case of preserving the life of the mother, a criminal offense punishable by two to five years in prison. The law, found in Articles 4512.1 to 4512.4, had a proviso that anyone who provided medication or other means to assist in performing an abortion was an accomplice who could also be charged. 1856 – In Sweden, an amendment to the 1778 Infanticide Act restricted the right to give birth anonymously to a mere confidential birth. 1867 – Illinois passed a bill that made abortion and attempted abortion a criminal offense. 1869 – The Parliament of Canada unified criminal law in all provinces, banning abortion. 1870 – Illinois passed another law banning the sale of drugs that could cause induced abortions. The law is notable because it allowed an exception for "the written prescription of some well-known and respectable practicing physician". 1872 – New York state made it a penalty to perform an abortion, with a criminal sentence of between 4 and 20 years in prison. 1873 – The passage of the Comstock Act in the United States makes it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail, including contraceptive devices and information on contraception or abortion and how to obtain them. (see also advertisement of abortion services). 1820–1900 – In the United States, primarily through the efforts of physicians in the American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions were outlawed.
20th century 1910s 1918 – In the United States, Margaret Sanger was charged under the New York law against disseminating contraceptive information. On appeal, her conviction was reversed on the grounds that contraceptive devices could legally be promoted for the cure and prevention of disease.
1920s 1920 – In France, a law forbidding all forms of contraception and information about it was enacted. 1920 – In the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin legalized abortion on request, the first country to do so. The law was first introduced in the Russian SFSR, and then the rest of the country in 1922. 1921 – In the Ukrainian SSR the law legalizing abortion on request in the Soviet Union was introduced in July, and then in the rest of the country.
1930s 1931 – In Mexico abortion was legalized in cases of rape. 1931 - A 1931 law criminalized abortion in Michigan except when the mother's life was in danger. 1932 – Poland was the first country in Europe outside the Soviet Union to legalize abortion in cases of rape and threat to maternal health.Rozporządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej z 11 lipca 1932 r. Kodeks karny art. 233. 1935 – Iceland became the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion under limited circumstances. 1935 – Nazi Germany amended its eugenics law to promote abortion for women with hereditary disorders. The law allowed abortion if a woman gave her permission, and if the fetus was not yet viable,Facing History and Ourselves. (n.d.). Timeline: Hitler's Notion of Building a Racial State . Retrieved 22 June 2006. and for purposes of so-called racial hygiene. 1935 – In Ireland contraception was made illegal under the 1935 Criminal Law (Amendment) Act. 1936 – Joseph Stalin reversed most parts of Lenin's legalization of abortion in the Soviet Union to increase population growth. 1936 – A US federal appeals court ruled in United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries that the federal government could not interfere with doctors providing contraception to their patients. 1936 – The Government of Catalonia legalised free abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.La Segunda República despenalizó el aborto con la ley más avanzada de Europa, Público (España), Patricia Campello, 15/2/2014Cataluña tuvo durante la República la ley del aborto más progresista de Europa , El País, 13/2/1983Véase el texto del decreto Decreto de Regulación de la Interrupción Artificial del Embarazo , en cgtburgos; también el reportaje de José María Garat, publicó en Mundo Gráfico el 12 de mayo de 1937, descargable desde la Biblioteca Nacional de España -En Cataluña existe ya el aborto legal 1938 – In Britain, Aleck Bourne aborted the pregnancy of a young girl who had been raped by British soldiers. Bourne was acquitted after turning himself in to authorities. The legal precedent of allowing abortion in order to avoid mental or physical damage was adopted by other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations. (Rex v Bourne) 1938 – In Sweden abortion was legalized on a limited basis. 1939 – The Penal Code of France was altered to permit an abortion that would save the pregnant woman's life.
1940s 1948 – The Eugenic Protection Law in Japan expanded the circumstances in which abortion is allowed.
1950s 1955 – The government of South Korea criminalized abortion in the 1953 Criminal Code in all circumstances. 1955 – In the Soviet Union abortion was legalized again. 1959 – The American Law Institute (ALI) in the United States drafted a model state abortion law to make legal abortions accessible.
1960s 1964 – In Norway the first law to legalize abortion was passed. It allowed abortion in cases of danger to the mother, and the abortion decision was made by two doctors. 1965 – Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), was a landmark decision of the U.S Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction. The case involved a Connecticut "Comstock law" that prohibited any person from using "any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception". The court held that the statute was unconstitutional and that its effect was "to deny disadvantaged citizens ... access to medical assistance and up-to-date information in respect to proper methods of birth control". By a vote of 7–2, the Supreme Court invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the "right to marital privacy", establishing the basis for the right to privacy with respect to intimate practices. This and other cases view the right to privacy as "protected from governmental intrusion".. 1965 – The New York State Legislature amended their abortion-related statute to allow for more therapeutic exceptions. 1966 – In Romania, the Ceauşescu regime enacted Decree 770 which banned all abortion in Romania and contraception, except in very limited cases in an attempt to boost the country's population. Scarlat, Sandra. "'Decreţeii': produsele unei epoci care a îmbolnăvit România" ("'Scions of the Decree': Products of an Era that Sickened Romania") , Evenimentul Zilei, 17 May 2005. 1966 – The Mississippi legislature made abortion legal in cases of rape. 1967 – In France the Neuwirth Law lifted the ban on birth control methods, including oral contraception, on 28 December 1967. 1967 – The UK Abortion Act (effective 1968) legalized abortion in the United Kingdom under certain grounds (except in Northern Ireland). 1967 – Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman. Similar laws were passed in both California and North Carolina. 1968 – The US states of Georgia and Maryland reformed their abortion laws based on the American Law Institute Model Penal Code. 1968 – In the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson's Committee on The Status of Women released a report calling for a repeal of all abortion laws. 1969 – Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, and New Mexico reformed their abortion laws based on the American Law Institute Model Penal Code. 1969 – The New Mexico legislature passed a law that made it a felony for anyone to provide a woman with an abortion unless it was needed to save her life, or because her pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. 1969 – Canada passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69, which began to allow abortion for selective reasons. 1969 – The ruling in the Victorian case of R v Davidson defined for the first time which abortions were lawful in Australia.. 1969 – Singapore passed The Abortion Act 1969 (effective 1970) which legalised abortion in Singapore. It was then replaced by the Termination of Pregnancy Act 1974. This allowed all women to abort a fetus "on request" before 24 weeks of the pregnancy had passed, unless the treatment is immediately necessary to save the life or to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.