Research Trials & Imprisonment

With few exceptions, most countries’ criminal laws contain restrictions on the grounds on which an abortion is legal, up to what stage of pregnancy, who can determine whether an abortion is legal, who is permitted to provide abortion services, and the punishments for violating these restrictions. In these countries, such laws combined with fear of prosecution, lack of information on the legal grounds for abortion, and social stigma intersect to create an environment where women and others often feel they have no alternative other than to have an unsafe abortion, which can lead to major complications and often death.

At the International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion, we are researching trials and imprisonment of women and abortion providers. We are publishing reports on the legal situation of abortion in countries where we know prosecutions and imprisonments have taken place over the past five years. Campaign members have already done a good deal of research to uncover existing cases of women and abortion providers imprisoned. Many of these researchers are also actively involved in working for the release of women and abortion providers from prison and for abortion law reform. You can find the full length country reports we have published so far below.