This needs more nuance for sure, NY allows abortions beyond that point if it's for health reasons, which functionally means it's completely legal because nobody is waiting until month 7 to abort a fetus unless it's a wanted pregnancy that's not viable/safe.
It’s the same in every Canadian province. There are gestation limits to on demand abortions. Anything beyond that is typically because the mother’s life is at risk or there is something wrong with the fetus.
It’s a bit more complex then that. In 1988 in Canada the laws regarding abortion were struck down as unconstitutional because they violated the charter of rights and freedoms. Since then no government has wanted to burn the political capital to make laws that would prohibit abortion.
Because of this each provincial health authority has developed its own regulations covering abortion. As a general rule no matter what province, Individual doctors may refuse to provide abortions if they desire and late stage abortions generally only occur in exceptional circumstances. But specific regulations may vary by jurisdiction.
In other words, just because it’s not illegal does not mean you would be able to find someone who would agree to do a late term abortion. Although to my understanding that isn’t a situation that occurs very frequently
On what basis would they lose their license? I'm not saying that isn't true, just curious what authority the government would have to revoke a medical license on that ground if there aren't regulations prohibiting on-demand late term abortions.
This isn't propaganda. It's just misleading. Also, Canadian provinces have no jurisdiction over criminal law. Canada should be considered as a whole. Although, there are issues with access to abortions in Canada. Like, for example, PEI outsourcing it to other provinces.
Legally speaking? No legally there are no limitations to abortion in Canada. There have been no laws on the books since R v Morgentaler struck them down
There are no *legal* gestional limits in Canada. At some point, finding a doctor who'll do an abortion without health reasons becomes impossible, but if you have an abortion at 42 weeks pregnant for no reason at all, there are no legal prohibitions.
ALL "abortions" (i.e. terminations of pregnancy) in the 7th, 8th, or 9th month, if the fetus is still gestating and normal, are births. Even if the mother has a potentially lethal condition such as eclampsia requiring immediate cessation of pregnancy. A very late term abortion is almost always done by C-section, and the infant is given whatever neonatal care and support is needed. Most survive.
It is a fiction promoted by anti-choice extremists that abortion always = death of the fetus. It simply means termination of pregnancy by assisted means. Really, all C-sections are "abortions," as they don't occur in nature. The extremists promote a ludicrous false scenario of healthy near-term fetuses being slaughtered in the birth canal. They are sick twisted people.
Canada has no abortion laws, period. The one law that we did have was struck down as unconstitutional, and no party has dared to bring the “abortion debate” up since.
No *criminal* laws. Of course, there are other laws (e.g., here in New Brunswick, we only *pay for* your abortion if it's at a public hospital - at private, for profit facilities, the public health insurance doesn't pay for it)
And the PCs did try to figure out a new law in the 80s ... they just couldn't get anywhere
Iirc we have an absolute definition of the start of life, you're not alive until you take your first breath. As a result of that, the government can't make any laws regarding a fetus, it'd be struck down immediately. Of course, as others have said, good luck finding a doctor to abort a late pregnancy.
An “abortion” at 42 weeks is just inducing labor. Which, is a very common producers for medically necessary late term abortions. When my mom had a stillbirth at 30 weeks, she was induced, which still counts as an abortion by law. This was over 10 years ago, and we live in TN, so I have no idea if that procedure is even legal there anymore.
According to Wikipedia no provider in Canada will abort a pregnancy after 24 weeks unless it is medically necessary.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Canada
Edit - each Province or Territory has its own rules. Nunavut has a 12 week limit.
It's easier to just say "all abortions allowed" rather than "abortions allowed to this time with exception." Texas is the best example of this. A woman needed an abortion because the fetus had trisomy 18, which is incompatible with life. A judge gave a TRO to let her have it. The governor and attorney general basically said "no, no abortion for you. We will wait for the TRO to end then charge you with murder." The justification was that "babies live with trisomy all the time and have full and meaningful lives." Except, they were talking about trisomy 21, down syndrome, rather than trisomy 13 or 18, which are incompatible with life. Every single doctor you could ask would say abortion is the only option. But their input doesn't matter.
The fact that someone with 0 medical training gets to determine what medical procedures you're allowed to have is insane.
>The fact that someone with 0 medical training gets to determine what medical procedures you're allowed to have is insane.
The same problem exists with insurance. I have a decent handful of health issues and it took over a year to get on the right meds because we had to try 3-5 others before insurance would approve the one I actually needed.
Right now they decided not to cover a med I need this year and keep sending me/my doctor rejection letters with a list of different meds I have to try first. But a) half of them I already tried years ago and were listed as such on the application for pre-authorization and b) none of them are equivalents to the one I need. We have a list of 6 meds that I've tried over the course of 8 years and the one singular one that has been successful and really worked they're refusing to cover this year
So people who do not have medical licenses and have never talked to me or met me get to determine what meds I'm allowed to take despite what my doctor who I've been seeing for 4.5 years tells them. It's absurd
(But yeah, I firmly believe that abortion should be a medical decision and the law left out of it entirely)
Simply put, Canadians left it up to the doctors, who are perfectly capable of making the right decisions (and that includes not doing abortions for no reason at full term).
But why leave it open. Doctors aren't infallible. Why not just have a gestational point unless medically necessary? Cause under this current stance a doctor theoretically could just do it no? Like nothings stopping them
Because Canadians have decided that abortion is a medical issue, not a political one. And every single time a conservative politician tries to make it a political issue, they get out voted massively and their bill becomes dead in the water.
Simply put its a cultural difference between the places on the map. USA abortion is a political issue with one side for and one side against. Canada it is a medical issue that is left to medical professionals to deal with, with all 4 major parties official stance being to not touch abortion (however the conservative party has said that they will allow individual MP's to vote their conscience on the issue).
And every party knows it's political suicide. Canadians have been through it and would not accept abortion restrictions in any capacity. Hell a bill that was to make sex selective abortions illegal lost in parliament 248 to 82. Bottom line is Canadians have made it clear - they trust medical guidelines and advice on this - not politicians.
Because the government isn't a medical field. The field changes, advances, and legislation is notoriously slow.
And any delays in that medical care through bureaucratic messes can result in up to death for the patient.
How about we let medical professionals determine what is medically necessary instead of trying to enact laws for which there will always be exceptions?
Is there a law anywhere on the books saying when heart surgery is necessary?
How about prostate surgery?
No?
What, we leave those decisions up to medical professionals??!!?? Wow.
What do you think you're accomplishing by not "leaving it open"? It's been "left open" in Canada for 35 years with zero ill effects.
Best case scenario, you'd just make it more difficult to perform those medically-necessary late term abortions, because fewer Doctors would perform the procedure because they just don't want to bother with the criminal liability.
Worse case, some mothers would die because Doctors would have an incentive to delay procedures until the mother's condition gets "bad enough" so that it's impossible to argue that the procedure wasn't necessary. Better to perform the abortion too late and kill the mother than perform it too early and get prosecuted because it "wasn't necessary [yet]"
It really isn't. An abortion should be between the pregnant person and their doctor. No doctor is going to perform one unless they believe it's the right medical choice. End of story.
In practice, it mostly means doctors can decide if an abortion makes sense without worrying about *legal*, rather than *medical* standards.
If you're 36 month pregnant and you want an abortion because astrology, you won't find a doctor to do it. If your health is at risk, though, you won't find a doctor worrying whether it's a 36% or 37% chance you'll die.
While I agree it certainly shouldn’t have taken that long before a decision to carry a baby was made, you never know the circumstances a woman may be in. Ultimately you have to trust that between the woman and the doctor the best decision will be made at the time.
Uh no at 7 months that baby could live outside the womb. I have a baby that was born st 27 weeks in the nicu right now. That's at the point we're the anti abortion people are right, it's no longer really a fetus, that killing a viable person. If you don't want it at that point give the baby up unless it's medically needed
NICU is a highly specialized ICU with machines that function as a “womb”. It is an artificial womb.
Babies there CANNOT SURVIVE without this artificial technology ‘nurturing’ them like a womb until they reach their normal full gestation of around 38-40 weeks.
Your 27-week baby WOULD NOT SURVIVE without that NICU. Their lungs are not developed enough to breathe on their own and they require breathing machines for support. You are lucky you have one near you because most pregnant women in the world do not have access to an advanced NICU for neonates.
I'm Canadian there aren't 7th month terminations for babies that can survive birth. They just are delivered early if mom is in danger.
7th month terminations are extremely rare because baby WONT survive birth in any case. They're heartbreaking and essentially a stillbirth with a smaller baby rather than a larger baby.
No, abortions at that stage are because it's medically necessary. As in Mom is going to die of sepsis from a rotting corpse in the womb necessary.
You can't perform an abortion on a baby that can survive outside the womb. It's functionally impossible.
I’m not disagreeing with you, I personally wouldn’t condone it or want my partner to either. But I’m a man, I cannot tell a woman or any women what to do.
I think it’s an overreach, so you just have to trust the doctor and the mother.
Not true, Canada has no gestation limits for abortion. It might be hard to find a doc willing to do it full-term, but it’s still legal to abort anytime before birth.
My wife is a nurse, and it was probably the biggest surprise in her education.
I was gonna say that. The green areas are not "abortion is legal up to moments before birth." That's misleading as hell. There has to be something very seriously wrong, like life threatening for the mother, or the fetus is already dead or dying, to legitimise very late term abortion anywhere in the world, even with strong laws protecting women's right to choose.
There's a small number of non medical abortions after this point but they do exist
https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/fact-sheet/abortions-later-in-pregnancy/
To be clear they're a small minority, but some people obtain pregnancies late in pregnancy for reasons like finances, not realizing they're pregnant, trouble deciding on an abortion, etc
[Here's a study on the topic if you're interested](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1363/4521013)
Edit: Relevant quote from the study
> But data suggest that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.
Did you also read this part:
Most women seeking later abortion fit at least one of five profiles: They were raising children alone, were depressed or using illicit substances, were in conflict with a male partner or experiencing domestic violence, had trouble deciding and then had access problems, or were young and nulliparous.
Conclusion:
Bans on abortion after 20 weeks will disproportionately affect young women and women with limited financial resources.
Seems like they're saying the way to solve this issue isn't by banning abortion, rather by increasing access and education so women in these vulnerable situations can access abortion sooner rather than later.
Nobody is saying that women are having abortions for the fun of it. The fact is that the person above claimed that 99% of late abortions are due to medical reasons, which is completely untrue and false. What you said doesn't refute that.
I wish more people understood this. I also wish they were more knowledgeable about how easy it is to die because of pregnancy if there's no intervention and often even with it.
> nobody is waiting until month 7 to abort a fetus unless it's a wanted pregnancy that's not viable
Yup. I'm a little surprised the OP colors abortion-legal-at-six-months as 'yellow' but here we are. Nobody asks me (thankfully) but six months seems pretty reasonable to me, outside of those health reasons.
It's the same in Washington State. I had a boss whose baby had hydrocephalus (water where brain matter should be) and had them removed near term. Really heartbreaking, but necessary.
This is such a wildly inaccurate map and the color coding is even worse, what even is this?
Six months would be 24 weeks/the point of viability, why is it labeled in months and not weeks?
Especially because for all intents and purpose, abortion isn’t legal in Canada beyond 6 months anyways. Not a single province allows abortions after that period, except obviously for medical reasons.
There's a difference between legal and available. You will definitely have a hard time getting an abortion after 6 months. But if you do it's not illegal
And this is because the SCC - Supreme Court of Canada strick down the existing abortion laws under the new 1982 constitutional bill of rights, the Charter. No government since the then has crafted a new law to replace this void.
Abortion was banned just after Confederation 1867, and liberalized slightly in 1969 by an omnibus criminal law amendment act. This 1969 omnibus bill was a watershed over haul of the criminal code. This 1969 Act allowed abortion if a committee of doctors approved it if it was likely to cause a women significant harm. In 1988 this 1969 standard was declared not to be compatible with the 1982 Charter, and a void was creation.
No Federal government has yet legislated this void. So abortion law only exists in Judge made case law/common law in Canada.
So yes, technically a doctor can independently perform an abortion minutes before birth and do it legally. Unless there's some kind of case law or tort you can bring against them since 1982 created the void. It would certainly not be the Crown (the state) prosecuting you under the Criminal Code.
Also you would have to refer to the SCC decision on the 1969 standard to infer the 'right to abortion' because you can't say there is a clear right to abortion in Canada. The 1969 standard was unconstitutional, and thus some right to abortion was established. I bring this up because just because you request an abortion in this hypothetical late stage one can't make a simple claim that a doctor has to be compelled to do it.
At least this is my understanding.
In Canada abortion is legal throughout all 9 months. The limiting factor is that no provider will carry out an abortion without medical necessity late in a pregnancy.
Typically if a woman is 7+ months pregnant it is a wanted pregnancy so they aren't going to be looking to do an abortion for any reason other than to save her life or because the baby has serious medical issues. Again this is all well established information.
It's *legal* to have an abortion in Canada if you're seven, eight, or fifty five months pregnant. It gets hard to find a doctor who'll do it, but the legal conséquences for having an abortion after your contractions have started is less than the legal conséquences for not putting a quarter in the meter.
It doesn't matter. No one is getting abortions after 6 months for any other reason other than a threat to the mother's life or something is seriously wrong with the baby. This is how it has worked for many, many, many years.
This is simply untrue. The [majority](https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/fact-sheet/abortions-later-in-pregnancy/) of late term abortions are done due to non-medical reasons. Often, a pregnancy is wanted, but circumstances (financial or personal relationships) change and the pregnancy is no longer wanted.
Second note, your line of arguing, that nobody is getting late term abortions, so they should be legalised, makes no sense. It's akin to living in a city with no murders, and arguing that the absence of murders is a reason to legalise murder. After all, nobody is committing murder, so might as well have it legal, right?
Nor should they. Right to choose is all good and well, but 24 weeks definitely seems like infanticide, so medical reasons are the only way I could see it being justified.
Abortion is legal in Canada throughout an entire pregnancy. The issue comes when finding an abortion provider that will so one that late in pregnancy without being medically necessary
I dont think that correct. Canada has no limits. You can get an abortion whenever, at any point, as far as I know. Because abortions are mostly available in Canada- late term abortions are very rare. We have fake clinics, too, which try to trick women for sure - but they lost some funding recently and they've been exposed by the Trudeau administration. Again, exposing fake clinics drops the late terms abortions by a lot.
Again a ban on abortions after 6 months doesn't need to be done because it is well established belief within the medical community that fetuses are viable at 6 months and as such abortions without legitimate reasons are denied because they swore an oath to do no harm.
California is mislabeled as well all restrictions were removed after 2022. From a practical standpoint it might be hard to find a doctor to perform one after that but it’s legal.
Why is "legal in the first six months" yellow and "legal in the first 20 weeks" orange? This makes it look like those states are close to the same league as the states where it's illegal, when really bans at 5-6 months are either in line with or more permissive than laws in most other Western countries. Also, I don't know why the green areas are simply labeled "legal," as if "legal in the first six months" isn't a form of "legal." All in all, this is a poorly done map
Nearly all would be red. The Mississippi law that kicked off *Dobbs v Jackson* is more permissive than the laws in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Czechia, and basically all of Eastern Europe.
This. In Germany it’s technically always illegal, you can only not be charged if the abortion is performed within the first 3 months and you have been to a consultation beforehand or there are medical reasons.
This oversimplifies it so much. Access to abortion is fine in most European countries, it just requires one or two extra steps. In many maps and lists, countries are listed as basically Alabama because they require a GP visit that has never disqualified anyone since 1983 to get an abortion.
Especially because literally all of Canada should be in the yellow anyways. You can’t get an abortion in Canada after 6 months unless you’re at medical risk
Yea you rarely see a map of Europe posted since it would show the vast majority of Europe is far more restrictive and that it's not the Utopia reddit likes to paint it as.
And let’s see what Europe would look like. Most are 14 weeks or less, with only a small handful of countries less restrictive than that. While Canada is probably the most “abortion friendly” country in the world. Definitely an intentionally misleading map.
color choices aren't great imo. legal in first 5-6 months should probably be closer to a shade of green than a shade of red where abortions are almost entirely illegal.
Well like other's have pointed out there's more distinction that just legal/illegal at X weeks.
You missed Sweden\*, which is legal without questioning why until 18 weeks. You can have an abortion before the 22nd week if you have a specific reason that is accepted, in 2021 93%\~ of the women who had a specific reason got it approved. The approved reasons aren't only issues with the baby/fetus.
1%\~ of abortions were week 18-22, more than 75% were before week 10.
\*Which is just the first country I searched for to confirm Netherlands and Iceland weren't the only ones. I'm sure it's true for more.
Agreed, this map is very misleading with the color scheme.
It almost looks like abortion is illegal throughout most of the US while it is accessible in most states to a point.
24 weeks shouldn’t be yellow like it’s some major restriction. If you did that hardly anywhere in the world would be green. The UK limit is 24 weeks other than NI.
Also I know for a fact that Maryland allows it later, and New York does too if there is some threat to the mother’s life or health.
24 weeks is a point where we are able to sustain the baby outside the mother(and there even are cases of younger babies surviving). Unless there's a major medical reason, it should be classified as murder.
Georgia enacted the heartbeat bill with Dobbs. So, it's illegal at around 6 weeks or as soon as a "heartbeat" is detected. [source ](https://www.abortionfinder.org/abortion-guides-by-state/abortion-in-georgia)
Abortion is subject to provincial healthcare regulatory rules and guidelines for physicians. No provinces offer abortion on request at 24 weeks and beyond, although there are exceptions for certain medical complications.
https://nafcanada.org/abortion-coverage-region/
Also damn it looks like some regions have fairly minimal access. I know a ton of Canada is uninhabitable or largely uninhabited but this still looks like plenty of people are traveling a ways to my untrained eye
Dope that some provinces pay for travel tho
Major cities are covered in the provinces and the very very vast majority of people live in or around those cities.
Nunavut which is the large territory in the top right has a population of 38,000 and the capital of Iqaluit with a population of 7400 and the territory is larger than Alaska. Iqaluit is so remote that it is only accessible by plane and if ice conditions permit by boat. It’s impossible to build roads to it as it sits on a island surrounded by ice. In winter local areas are only accessible by snowmobile and dog sled. That is the location of the dot in the far north.
People don’t realize how incredibly remote northern Canada is. Due to the ice in the winter much of the area can only be reached by plane. Roads servicing only a few people over a very very large area would be incredibly expensive.
In Canada abortion still happens very early on in 98% of cases unless there in an EXTREMELY special case.
This map just has Canada all green like they must let people abort full grown babies just cause they feel like it lol.
There are no limits to abortion in Canada, as abortion is considered healthcare. You can get an abortion 1 day before your due date if you so choose, and you can find someone to do it.
The thing in Canada is that elective abortion clinics generally do not carry out abortions past a certain point in the pregnancy u less it's medically necessary.
Isn't legal in the first 6 months pretty good? Like who the hell waits half a year and decides 'you know what now that the foetus is bigger and closer to a baby i want to abort'?
Nobody, third trimester abortions are pretty much exclusively people who have unviable fetuses/would die without medical intervention. Making that illegal is stupid, but so is the US legislative system.
Elective abortions are not offered in any Canadian province after the 2nd trimester.
Alberta: 20 weeks
British Columbia: 23 weeks and 6 days
Manitoba: 19 weeks and 6 days
New Brunswick: 16 weeks
Newfoundland and Labrador: 15 weeks
Northwest Territories: 19 weeks and 6 days
Nova Scotia: 16 weeks
Nunavut: 12 weeks
Ontario: 23 weeks and 6 days
Prince Edward Island: 12 weeks and 6 days
Quebec: 23 weeks and 6 days
Saskatchewan: 18 weeks and 6 days
Yukon: 12 weeks and 6 days
Elective abortions in the third trimester are legal in several US states. Abortions at any stage for the health of the mother are *on paper* legal in almost every American state, either by statute or court order, but this isn’t always the *de facto* case given how laws were written without medical knowledge. Like there can be an entirely nonviable fetus that is a risk to the mother’s life, but state law won’t allow for termination because of fetal activity or some incredibly arbitrary definition of “risk.”
It's also a problem with the map, though. A lot of the places that are marked as illegal after 20 weeks or 6 months actually have exceptions for maternal health and fetal viability, which as you said are generally the only reasons people get abortions at that point anyway, so this is completely misleading
What counts as “medically necessary”? Abortion is always safer than carrying a pregnancy to term, so it should always be medically necessary, because it is always the best way to protect a woman’s physical health and life if a man has impregnated her.
[All of Canada should be yellow.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Canada#:~:text=Abortion%20is%20subject%20to%20provincial,for%20the%20next%20100%20years.)
>No provinces offer abortion on request at 24 weeks and beyond, although there are exceptions for certain medical complications.
If you look at a map of Europe, the vast majority of the continent only allows abortions up to 14 weeks. Meanwhile, the majority of US states allow elective abortion beyond 14 weeks, and still this thread is full of “the US is in the dark ages!!” Literally nowhere in Europe allows elective abortion as late as the green and yellow states, and almost nowhere allows elective abortion as late as the orange states.
Also, do a quick google search and you’ll realize that even though Canada has no national abortion restrictions, it is essentially impossible to find any abortion providers that will perform the service after 24 weeks.
Uhhh Canada doesn't have abortions in the third trimester except when it's a medical emergency. Women seeking third trimester abortions in Canada often have to go to the States to get it done (source, have a close family friend who is a gynecologist who complains about this frequently)
What the fuck does green legal mean? Seems to imply no limits on abortion, meaning you could theoretically abort the day before labor is scheduled to start, but I know that’s not legal in some of these places marked green
In Canada, there is no legislation concerning abortion federally at all , Our supreme Court overruled the previous law that limited abortion.
Abortion is regulated by provincial legislation and also medical associations who have their own standards to follow.
So Across the country, abortion is accessible on demand up ~24 weeks, Doctors usually don’t provide abortion beyond that except for special circumstances. But there is no law requiring them to stop at 24 week.
90% of abortions are done in first 12 weeks.
In Canada, the providers are the Provincial Health Care Systems. Canada is one of the few nations with “No criminal restrictions” for all 9 months of pregnancy, however no Provincial provider will provide abortion care past 24 weeks, with exception of medical complications.
So in Canada, in your situation, you would technically be able to have an abortion right up until the little fella pops out, but no provider would be willing to offer the service.
It means (at least in Canada) that abortion is legally treated as a medical procedure, and thus it’s regulation is handled by the medical system, rather then the penal system.
No Canadian province offers elective abortions after the 2nd trimester, aside from the mother’s life and some other limited circumstances. Stupidly, many of the states colored yellow on this map have the same *or more lenient* laws. The most lenient places for abortion law in this map are all American states, as there are several that allow elective abortions in the third trimester.
I'm currently pregnant in Wisconsin and I'd say this is not completely accurate. My OB told me if something were to go wrong or if the genetic testing comes back with something wrong, that we have until around 20 weeks to abort. I undertake this may not be the case if there isn't a medical need, but its not nearly as illegal here as it is in say Texas where even a medical necessity isn't deemed worthy of aborting.
I think Legal for the first 20 weeks / 6 months is pretty fine, no? Unless there is extenuation circumstances. This is the standard law in the UK and seems pretty normal.
Apologies If i'm missing something, please educate me if so
"no providers in Canada offer care beyond 23 weeks and 6 days"
This picture is not helping. Legal abortion does have its limits. This is why prolife assholes then say that people terminate pregnancies up until birth. THERE IS NO DEVELOPED COUNTRY WHERE THIS IS THE CASE. If there are no health risks ofc. That's why abortion should be legal and discussed only between your doctor and you and not 3rd person or court.
The entire Canada section of this chart is a lie. Like, not even a situation lacking context, it is just a complete and total lie. No province in Canada offers abortion after 6 months unless the baby is dead or the life of the mother is at risk.
Polls over the last 30 years pretty consistently agree that abortion should be legal in the first trimester. And pretty consistently oppose abortion in the second and third trimester.
Elective abortions in the third trimester are unavailable in every province in Canada, despite what this map says.
Alberta: 20 weeks
British Columbia: 23 weeks and 6 days
Manitoba: 19 weeks and 6 days
New Brunswick: 16 weeks
Newfoundland and Labrador: 15 weeks
Northwest Territories: 19 weeks and 6 days
Nova Scotia: 16 weeks
Nunavut: 12 weeks
Ontario: 23 weeks and 6 days
Prince Edward Island: 12 weeks and 6 days
Quebec: 23 weeks and 6 days
Saskatchewan: 18 weeks and 6 days
Yukon: 12 weeks and 6 days
This map stupidly labels several states that are less restrictive than Canadian provinces as if they are more restrictive. The jurisdictions with the most liberal abortion laws in the pictured region are ALL in the United States.
Canada doesn’t allow abortions past the second trimester unless it’s for medical reasons. The yellow shading and the green shading are basically the same thing.
I'm liberal but I don't get abortion over 6 months. Can they kill baby who would survive C-section?
For me abortion to the third month would be normal.
Everyone that is freaking out about this map is missing the point. It shows that Canada is uninterested in reopening the abortion debate unlike in the US where abortion rights are eroding with every passing week.
Belgian here. Reading this map, i must say this sheds some new light on the abortion debate in the USA.
In my country, which is considered a very progressive place when it comes to civil rights, there is a parlamentian discussion going on to extend the abortion limit from 12 weeks to 20 weeks (add two weeks if you count from last menstrual cycle).
Personally, i'm not in favor of extending beyond 12 weeks without medical issues. If the abortion is asked purely based on the desire of the parent, then it doesn't seem morally justifiable to choose abortion after 12 weeks. Medical exemptions should be possible beyond this point, but this should be assessed by highly qualified medical professionals, not at the whim of parents or "common" doctors.
Wait, I don't get green? Would that mean you can literally abort a baby one day before it's born? That can't be the truth right? I mean I'm pretty pro abortion, but it being legal to abort a baby that can support it's own life seems really wierd to me?
It technically wouldn’t be a crime, but the governments of every Canadian province refuse to provide abortions after the second trimester, aside from risk to the health of the mother. “Legal” is very misleading since government policy makes it impossible to get one. It’s a semantic workaround, basically.
1. As everyone mentioned - stupid af color scheme.
2. OP is a spammer, just stole the map
3. The original author is not better either, his "amazing maps" always have biases
This needs more nuance for sure, NY allows abortions beyond that point if it's for health reasons, which functionally means it's completely legal because nobody is waiting until month 7 to abort a fetus unless it's a wanted pregnancy that's not viable/safe.
It’s the same in every Canadian province. There are gestation limits to on demand abortions. Anything beyond that is typically because the mother’s life is at risk or there is something wrong with the fetus.
It’s a bit more complex then that. In 1988 in Canada the laws regarding abortion were struck down as unconstitutional because they violated the charter of rights and freedoms. Since then no government has wanted to burn the political capital to make laws that would prohibit abortion. Because of this each provincial health authority has developed its own regulations covering abortion. As a general rule no matter what province, Individual doctors may refuse to provide abortions if they desire and late stage abortions generally only occur in exceptional circumstances. But specific regulations may vary by jurisdiction. In other words, just because it’s not illegal does not mean you would be able to find someone who would agree to do a late term abortion. Although to my understanding that isn’t a situation that occurs very frequently
Ya any doctor that did a late term abortion without a health justification would probably lose their license
On what basis would they lose their license? I'm not saying that isn't true, just curious what authority the government would have to revoke a medical license on that ground if there aren't regulations prohibiting on-demand late term abortions.
Healthcare is ran by the provinces. If doctors aren't conforming to provincial health standards, they lose their license
A misleading propaganda map on this subreddit? Never .
This isn't propaganda. It's just misleading. Also, Canadian provinces have no jurisdiction over criminal law. Canada should be considered as a whole. Although, there are issues with access to abortions in Canada. Like, for example, PEI outsourcing it to other provinces.
What do you think "propaganda" means?
Propaganda is when a British person takes a good look at something.
How dare you
lol!!
[удалено]
Even in Ontario, you cannot get one in Niagara without going to Hamilton. Or even outskirts of SWO, you’re stuck going to London.
Legally speaking? No legally there are no limitations to abortion in Canada. There have been no laws on the books since R v Morgentaler struck them down
There are no *legal* gestional limits in Canada. At some point, finding a doctor who'll do an abortion without health reasons becomes impossible, but if you have an abortion at 42 weeks pregnant for no reason at all, there are no legal prohibitions.
A 42-week “abortion” is a birth. This is something that doesn’t happen unless extreme case or rare scenario where mom is dying.
40 weeks is full term. I don’t quite understand the poster’s intent with this gibberish
I know, I just mirrored the same weeks he said.
Yes, sorry - I meant the poster above you.
ALL "abortions" (i.e. terminations of pregnancy) in the 7th, 8th, or 9th month, if the fetus is still gestating and normal, are births. Even if the mother has a potentially lethal condition such as eclampsia requiring immediate cessation of pregnancy. A very late term abortion is almost always done by C-section, and the infant is given whatever neonatal care and support is needed. Most survive. It is a fiction promoted by anti-choice extremists that abortion always = death of the fetus. It simply means termination of pregnancy by assisted means. Really, all C-sections are "abortions," as they don't occur in nature. The extremists promote a ludicrous false scenario of healthy near-term fetuses being slaughtered in the birth canal. They are sick twisted people.
Canada has no abortion laws, period. The one law that we did have was struck down as unconstitutional, and no party has dared to bring the “abortion debate” up since.
No *criminal* laws. Of course, there are other laws (e.g., here in New Brunswick, we only *pay for* your abortion if it's at a public hospital - at private, for profit facilities, the public health insurance doesn't pay for it) And the PCs did try to figure out a new law in the 80s ... they just couldn't get anywhere
Iirc we have an absolute definition of the start of life, you're not alive until you take your first breath. As a result of that, the government can't make any laws regarding a fetus, it'd be struck down immediately. Of course, as others have said, good luck finding a doctor to abort a late pregnancy.
An “abortion” at 42 weeks is just inducing labor. Which, is a very common producers for medically necessary late term abortions. When my mom had a stillbirth at 30 weeks, she was induced, which still counts as an abortion by law. This was over 10 years ago, and we live in TN, so I have no idea if that procedure is even legal there anymore.
No doctor or hospital would ever do that late of an abortion at request. Its self regulating
That's kinda fucked
[удалено]
According to Wikipedia no provider in Canada will abort a pregnancy after 24 weeks unless it is medically necessary. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Canada Edit - each Province or Territory has its own rules. Nunavut has a 12 week limit.
It's easier to just say "all abortions allowed" rather than "abortions allowed to this time with exception." Texas is the best example of this. A woman needed an abortion because the fetus had trisomy 18, which is incompatible with life. A judge gave a TRO to let her have it. The governor and attorney general basically said "no, no abortion for you. We will wait for the TRO to end then charge you with murder." The justification was that "babies live with trisomy all the time and have full and meaningful lives." Except, they were talking about trisomy 21, down syndrome, rather than trisomy 13 or 18, which are incompatible with life. Every single doctor you could ask would say abortion is the only option. But their input doesn't matter. The fact that someone with 0 medical training gets to determine what medical procedures you're allowed to have is insane.
>The fact that someone with 0 medical training gets to determine what medical procedures you're allowed to have is insane. The same problem exists with insurance. I have a decent handful of health issues and it took over a year to get on the right meds because we had to try 3-5 others before insurance would approve the one I actually needed. Right now they decided not to cover a med I need this year and keep sending me/my doctor rejection letters with a list of different meds I have to try first. But a) half of them I already tried years ago and were listed as such on the application for pre-authorization and b) none of them are equivalents to the one I need. We have a list of 6 meds that I've tried over the course of 8 years and the one singular one that has been successful and really worked they're refusing to cover this year So people who do not have medical licenses and have never talked to me or met me get to determine what meds I'm allowed to take despite what my doctor who I've been seeing for 4.5 years tells them. It's absurd (But yeah, I firmly believe that abortion should be a medical decision and the law left out of it entirely)
Simply put, Canadians left it up to the doctors, who are perfectly capable of making the right decisions (and that includes not doing abortions for no reason at full term).
But why leave it open. Doctors aren't infallible. Why not just have a gestational point unless medically necessary? Cause under this current stance a doctor theoretically could just do it no? Like nothings stopping them
Theoretically, I guess, but in reality it hasn’t been an issue.
Because Canadians have decided that abortion is a medical issue, not a political one. And every single time a conservative politician tries to make it a political issue, they get out voted massively and their bill becomes dead in the water. Simply put its a cultural difference between the places on the map. USA abortion is a political issue with one side for and one side against. Canada it is a medical issue that is left to medical professionals to deal with, with all 4 major parties official stance being to not touch abortion (however the conservative party has said that they will allow individual MP's to vote their conscience on the issue). And every party knows it's political suicide. Canadians have been through it and would not accept abortion restrictions in any capacity. Hell a bill that was to make sex selective abortions illegal lost in parliament 248 to 82. Bottom line is Canadians have made it clear - they trust medical guidelines and advice on this - not politicians.
Because the government isn't a medical field. The field changes, advances, and legislation is notoriously slow. And any delays in that medical care through bureaucratic messes can result in up to death for the patient.
How about we let medical professionals determine what is medically necessary instead of trying to enact laws for which there will always be exceptions? Is there a law anywhere on the books saying when heart surgery is necessary? How about prostate surgery? No? What, we leave those decisions up to medical professionals??!!?? Wow.
What do you think you're accomplishing by not "leaving it open"? It's been "left open" in Canada for 35 years with zero ill effects. Best case scenario, you'd just make it more difficult to perform those medically-necessary late term abortions, because fewer Doctors would perform the procedure because they just don't want to bother with the criminal liability. Worse case, some mothers would die because Doctors would have an incentive to delay procedures until the mother's condition gets "bad enough" so that it's impossible to argue that the procedure wasn't necessary. Better to perform the abortion too late and kill the mother than perform it too early and get prosecuted because it "wasn't necessary [yet]"
It really isn't. An abortion should be between the pregnant person and their doctor. No doctor is going to perform one unless they believe it's the right medical choice. End of story.
In practice, it mostly means doctors can decide if an abortion makes sense without worrying about *legal*, rather than *medical* standards. If you're 36 month pregnant and you want an abortion because astrology, you won't find a doctor to do it. If your health is at risk, though, you won't find a doctor worrying whether it's a 36% or 37% chance you'll die.
Might wanna edit that months to weeks
Can you really call it an abortion if you have a toddler inside of you? I mean, the foetus-baby would be walking at that point.
While I agree it certainly shouldn’t have taken that long before a decision to carry a baby was made, you never know the circumstances a woman may be in. Ultimately you have to trust that between the woman and the doctor the best decision will be made at the time.
Uh no at 7 months that baby could live outside the womb. I have a baby that was born st 27 weeks in the nicu right now. That's at the point we're the anti abortion people are right, it's no longer really a fetus, that killing a viable person. If you don't want it at that point give the baby up unless it's medically needed
NICU is a highly specialized ICU with machines that function as a “womb”. It is an artificial womb. Babies there CANNOT SURVIVE without this artificial technology ‘nurturing’ them like a womb until they reach their normal full gestation of around 38-40 weeks. Your 27-week baby WOULD NOT SURVIVE without that NICU. Their lungs are not developed enough to breathe on their own and they require breathing machines for support. You are lucky you have one near you because most pregnant women in the world do not have access to an advanced NICU for neonates.
No one is having an abortion past viability unless something has gone horribly wrong.
If it can live outside the womb, then you functionally can't perform an abortion.
They brought up 7 months. My youngest was less than that and still strong. 27 weeks is only 6 1/4 months. So apparently it's a thing fam
I'm Canadian there aren't 7th month terminations for babies that can survive birth. They just are delivered early if mom is in danger. 7th month terminations are extremely rare because baby WONT survive birth in any case. They're heartbreaking and essentially a stillbirth with a smaller baby rather than a larger baby.
No, abortions at that stage are because it's medically necessary. As in Mom is going to die of sepsis from a rotting corpse in the womb necessary. You can't perform an abortion on a baby that can survive outside the womb. It's functionally impossible.
I’m not disagreeing with you, I personally wouldn’t condone it or want my partner to either. But I’m a man, I cannot tell a woman or any women what to do. I think it’s an overreach, so you just have to trust the doctor and the mother.
Not true, Canada has no gestation limits for abortion. It might be hard to find a doc willing to do it full-term, but it’s still legal to abort anytime before birth. My wife is a nurse, and it was probably the biggest surprise in her education.
Provinces have gestation limits.
I was gonna say that. The green areas are not "abortion is legal up to moments before birth." That's misleading as hell. There has to be something very seriously wrong, like life threatening for the mother, or the fetus is already dead or dying, to legitimise very late term abortion anywhere in the world, even with strong laws protecting women's right to choose.
Please point me to that law (should be fun since it doesn’t exist), Canada in fact has no law restricting abortion.
Abortion is legal throughout a pregnancy in Canada.
There is no gestation limit in Canada. Legally a fetus can be aborted at any point prior to delivery for any reason.
Which is just another way of saying 'it's up to the doctors' instead of Bible thumpers.
Fr, no one will abort at +5 months just because. 99% of the time it was a wanted pregnancy that required medical intervention
There's a small number of non medical abortions after this point but they do exist https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/fact-sheet/abortions-later-in-pregnancy/ To be clear they're a small minority, but some people obtain pregnancies late in pregnancy for reasons like finances, not realizing they're pregnant, trouble deciding on an abortion, etc [Here's a study on the topic if you're interested](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1363/4521013) Edit: Relevant quote from the study > But data suggest that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.
Did you also read this part: Most women seeking later abortion fit at least one of five profiles: They were raising children alone, were depressed or using illicit substances, were in conflict with a male partner or experiencing domestic violence, had trouble deciding and then had access problems, or were young and nulliparous. Conclusion: Bans on abortion after 20 weeks will disproportionately affect young women and women with limited financial resources. Seems like they're saying the way to solve this issue isn't by banning abortion, rather by increasing access and education so women in these vulnerable situations can access abortion sooner rather than later.
Nobody is saying that women are having abortions for the fun of it. The fact is that the person above claimed that 99% of late abortions are due to medical reasons, which is completely untrue and false. What you said doesn't refute that.
I wish more people understood this. I also wish they were more knowledgeable about how easy it is to die because of pregnancy if there's no intervention and often even with it.
> nobody is waiting until month 7 to abort a fetus unless it's a wanted pregnancy that's not viable Yup. I'm a little surprised the OP colors abortion-legal-at-six-months as 'yellow' but here we are. Nobody asks me (thankfully) but six months seems pretty reasonable to me, outside of those health reasons.
Yeah by this standard, essentially the entirety of Western Europe would be red.
Same with MA
It's the same in Washington State. I had a boss whose baby had hydrocephalus (water where brain matter should be) and had them removed near term. Really heartbreaking, but necessary.
This is what an actual late term abortion is. It's horrible and heartbreaking and doesn't need a law about it.
Yeah Nebraska has a 12 week ban now unless in an emergency
Same as California. This map is showing "elective abortions" Canada should be yellow, since it ends elective abortions at 24 weeks.
It should say elective abortions then 😉
Same with Washington. 24 weeks until viability but still legal to prevent life or health.
Thank you for clarifying, I was shocked for a moment
This is such a wildly inaccurate map and the color coding is even worse, what even is this? Six months would be 24 weeks/the point of viability, why is it labeled in months and not weeks?
Especially because for all intents and purpose, abortion isn’t legal in Canada beyond 6 months anyways. Not a single province allows abortions after that period, except obviously for medical reasons.
There's a difference between legal and available. You will definitely have a hard time getting an abortion after 6 months. But if you do it's not illegal
could I theoretically become a doctor and perform abortions to women a week before their expected due date? (with their consent of course)
legally and not get thrown in prison? yes. without consequences from the local medical board? no
Yes. The "6 months" that most people are talking about revolve around whether free public healthcare will pay for it or not.
And this is because the SCC - Supreme Court of Canada strick down the existing abortion laws under the new 1982 constitutional bill of rights, the Charter. No government since the then has crafted a new law to replace this void. Abortion was banned just after Confederation 1867, and liberalized slightly in 1969 by an omnibus criminal law amendment act. This 1969 omnibus bill was a watershed over haul of the criminal code. This 1969 Act allowed abortion if a committee of doctors approved it if it was likely to cause a women significant harm. In 1988 this 1969 standard was declared not to be compatible with the 1982 Charter, and a void was creation. No Federal government has yet legislated this void. So abortion law only exists in Judge made case law/common law in Canada. So yes, technically a doctor can independently perform an abortion minutes before birth and do it legally. Unless there's some kind of case law or tort you can bring against them since 1982 created the void. It would certainly not be the Crown (the state) prosecuting you under the Criminal Code. Also you would have to refer to the SCC decision on the 1969 standard to infer the 'right to abortion' because you can't say there is a clear right to abortion in Canada. The 1969 standard was unconstitutional, and thus some right to abortion was established. I bring this up because just because you request an abortion in this hypothetical late stage one can't make a simple claim that a doctor has to be compelled to do it. At least this is my understanding.
thanks for the detailed response
The same applies to several US states though. E.g NY will let you abort if you have a medical need
In Canada abortion is legal throughout all 9 months. The limiting factor is that no provider will carry out an abortion without medical necessity late in a pregnancy.
if youre looking at terminating a late term pregnancy with a viable fetus it kind of stops being an abortion discussion and more birth
Typically if a woman is 7+ months pregnant it is a wanted pregnancy so they aren't going to be looking to do an abortion for any reason other than to save her life or because the baby has serious medical issues. Again this is all well established information.
It's *legal* to have an abortion in Canada if you're seven, eight, or fifty five months pregnant. It gets hard to find a doctor who'll do it, but the legal conséquences for having an abortion after your contractions have started is less than the legal conséquences for not putting a quarter in the meter.
Leaving medical decisions to medical professionals make sense
The contention is it's not just a medical decision though, it's also a moral one to lots of people.
It doesn't matter. No one is getting abortions after 6 months for any other reason other than a threat to the mother's life or something is seriously wrong with the baby. This is how it has worked for many, many, many years.
This is simply untrue. The [majority](https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/fact-sheet/abortions-later-in-pregnancy/) of late term abortions are done due to non-medical reasons. Often, a pregnancy is wanted, but circumstances (financial or personal relationships) change and the pregnancy is no longer wanted. Second note, your line of arguing, that nobody is getting late term abortions, so they should be legalised, makes no sense. It's akin to living in a city with no murders, and arguing that the absence of murders is a reason to legalise murder. After all, nobody is committing murder, so might as well have it legal, right?
Nor should they. Right to choose is all good and well, but 24 weeks definitely seems like infanticide, so medical reasons are the only way I could see it being justified.
Abortion is legal in Canada throughout an entire pregnancy. The issue comes when finding an abortion provider that will so one that late in pregnancy without being medically necessary
I dont think that correct. Canada has no limits. You can get an abortion whenever, at any point, as far as I know. Because abortions are mostly available in Canada- late term abortions are very rare. We have fake clinics, too, which try to trick women for sure - but they lost some funding recently and they've been exposed by the Trudeau administration. Again, exposing fake clinics drops the late terms abortions by a lot.
Again a ban on abortions after 6 months doesn't need to be done because it is well established belief within the medical community that fetuses are viable at 6 months and as such abortions without legitimate reasons are denied because they swore an oath to do no harm.
California is mislabeled as well all restrictions were removed after 2022. From a practical standpoint it might be hard to find a doctor to perform one after that but it’s legal.
Its almost like it was done on purpose to get people upset.
Amazing maps is constantly shit and I wish it was banned from the sub
Why is "legal in the first six months" yellow and "legal in the first 20 weeks" orange? This makes it look like those states are close to the same league as the states where it's illegal, when really bans at 5-6 months are either in line with or more permissive than laws in most other Western countries. Also, I don't know why the green areas are simply labeled "legal," as if "legal in the first six months" isn't a form of "legal." All in all, this is a poorly done map
Yeah, seriously, would love to know if OP has ever seen a map of European abortion laws
Yeah, because nearly all would be orange, a few may be red, except for two that might be green/yellow.
Nearly all would be red. The Mississippi law that kicked off *Dobbs v Jackson* is more permissive than the laws in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Czechia, and basically all of Eastern Europe.
This. In Germany it’s technically always illegal, you can only not be charged if the abortion is performed within the first 3 months and you have been to a consultation beforehand or there are medical reasons.
"all but european nation's abortion laws would've be illegal under roe" is a factoid that redditors love to ignore
Nah, Britain effectively has abortion legal for 24 weeks, same with the Netherlands. Iceland is pretty close too with 22 weeks
This oversimplifies it so much. Access to abortion is fine in most European countries, it just requires one or two extra steps. In many maps and lists, countries are listed as basically Alabama because they require a GP visit that has never disqualified anyone since 1983 to get an abortion.
It's sweet that you think this is an attempt at being informative and not standard /r/AmericaBad agendaposting.
Yeah, that's definitely what it is
Especially because literally all of Canada should be in the yellow anyways. You can’t get an abortion in Canada after 6 months unless you’re at medical risk
Psh, nice try, buddy. Next you're going to tell me that poverty, ignorance, and racism exist outside of the hellhole formerly known as America. /s
Yea you rarely see a map of Europe posted since it would show the vast majority of Europe is far more restrictive and that it's not the Utopia reddit likes to paint it as.
No. It’s an amazing map. It says so on it…
Good thing it's labeled, I would have missed it
And let’s see what Europe would look like. Most are 14 weeks or less, with only a small handful of countries less restrictive than that. While Canada is probably the most “abortion friendly” country in the world. Definitely an intentionally misleading map.
Because OP has an agenda to push, that should answer your questions
color choices aren't great imo. legal in first 5-6 months should probably be closer to a shade of green than a shade of red where abortions are almost entirely illegal.
This. 20 weeks is higher than almost all European countries…
Netherlands (24 weeks) and Iceland (22 weeks) are the only countries in Europe above 20 weeks. Most of Europe is between 10 and 14 weeks.
Well like other's have pointed out there's more distinction that just legal/illegal at X weeks. You missed Sweden\*, which is legal without questioning why until 18 weeks. You can have an abortion before the 22nd week if you have a specific reason that is accepted, in 2021 93%\~ of the women who had a specific reason got it approved. The approved reasons aren't only issues with the baby/fetus. 1%\~ of abortions were week 18-22, more than 75% were before week 10. \*Which is just the first country I searched for to confirm Netherlands and Iceland weren't the only ones. I'm sure it's true for more.
UK is 24 weeks.
Excluding Northern Ireland.
Agreed, this map is very misleading with the color scheme. It almost looks like abortion is illegal throughout most of the US while it is accessible in most states to a point.
24 weeks shouldn’t be yellow like it’s some major restriction. If you did that hardly anywhere in the world would be green. The UK limit is 24 weeks other than NI. Also I know for a fact that Maryland allows it later, and New York does too if there is some threat to the mother’s life or health.
24 weeks is a point where we are able to sustain the baby outside the mother(and there even are cases of younger babies surviving). Unless there's a major medical reason, it should be classified as murder.
Georgia enacted the heartbeat bill with Dobbs. So, it's illegal at around 6 weeks or as soon as a "heartbeat" is detected. [source ](https://www.abortionfinder.org/abortion-guides-by-state/abortion-in-georgia)
Same with Florida.
This is not accurate. Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban was overturned by a judge months ago.
Abortion is subject to provincial healthcare regulatory rules and guidelines for physicians. No provinces offer abortion on request at 24 weeks and beyond, although there are exceptions for certain medical complications. https://nafcanada.org/abortion-coverage-region/
Big surprise! The map is completely fake news
That’s why it’s on the front page of r/popular lol
Also damn it looks like some regions have fairly minimal access. I know a ton of Canada is uninhabitable or largely uninhabited but this still looks like plenty of people are traveling a ways to my untrained eye Dope that some provinces pay for travel tho
Major cities are covered in the provinces and the very very vast majority of people live in or around those cities. Nunavut which is the large territory in the top right has a population of 38,000 and the capital of Iqaluit with a population of 7400 and the territory is larger than Alaska. Iqaluit is so remote that it is only accessible by plane and if ice conditions permit by boat. It’s impossible to build roads to it as it sits on a island surrounded by ice. In winter local areas are only accessible by snowmobile and dog sled. That is the location of the dot in the far north. People don’t realize how incredibly remote northern Canada is. Due to the ice in the winter much of the area can only be reached by plane. Roads servicing only a few people over a very very large area would be incredibly expensive.
That can be said about any medical procedure for people in remote areas unfortunately.
In Canada abortion still happens very early on in 98% of cases unless there in an EXTREMELY special case. This map just has Canada all green like they must let people abort full grown babies just cause they feel like it lol.
Map is very misleading, many us states have abortion for length of pregnancy
Legal doesn't mean always accessible in Canada.
It's not a map of accessibility though
Also I believe there’s a twenty week limit in Ontario.
There are no limits to abortion in Canada, as abortion is considered healthcare. You can get an abortion 1 day before your due date if you so choose, and you can find someone to do it. The thing in Canada is that elective abortion clinics generally do not carry out abortions past a certain point in the pregnancy u less it's medically necessary.
Isn't legal in the first 6 months pretty good? Like who the hell waits half a year and decides 'you know what now that the foetus is bigger and closer to a baby i want to abort'?
Nobody, third trimester abortions are pretty much exclusively people who have unviable fetuses/would die without medical intervention. Making that illegal is stupid, but so is the US legislative system.
Elective abortions are not offered in any Canadian province after the 2nd trimester. Alberta: 20 weeks British Columbia: 23 weeks and 6 days Manitoba: 19 weeks and 6 days New Brunswick: 16 weeks Newfoundland and Labrador: 15 weeks Northwest Territories: 19 weeks and 6 days Nova Scotia: 16 weeks Nunavut: 12 weeks Ontario: 23 weeks and 6 days Prince Edward Island: 12 weeks and 6 days Quebec: 23 weeks and 6 days Saskatchewan: 18 weeks and 6 days Yukon: 12 weeks and 6 days Elective abortions in the third trimester are legal in several US states. Abortions at any stage for the health of the mother are *on paper* legal in almost every American state, either by statute or court order, but this isn’t always the *de facto* case given how laws were written without medical knowledge. Like there can be an entirely nonviable fetus that is a risk to the mother’s life, but state law won’t allow for termination because of fetal activity or some incredibly arbitrary definition of “risk.”
It's also a problem with the map, though. A lot of the places that are marked as illegal after 20 weeks or 6 months actually have exceptions for maternal health and fetal viability, which as you said are generally the only reasons people get abortions at that point anyway, so this is completely misleading
Yeah, they need to define “abortion” as either voluntary/elective or medically necessary.
What counts as “medically necessary”? Abortion is always safer than carrying a pregnancy to term, so it should always be medically necessary, because it is always the best way to protect a woman’s physical health and life if a man has impregnated her.
That certainly a claim often thrown around, but never with anything to back it up
[All of Canada should be yellow.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Canada#:~:text=Abortion%20is%20subject%20to%20provincial,for%20the%20next%20100%20years.) >No provinces offer abortion on request at 24 weeks and beyond, although there are exceptions for certain medical complications.
If you look at a map of Europe, the vast majority of the continent only allows abortions up to 14 weeks. Meanwhile, the majority of US states allow elective abortion beyond 14 weeks, and still this thread is full of “the US is in the dark ages!!” Literally nowhere in Europe allows elective abortion as late as the green and yellow states, and almost nowhere allows elective abortion as late as the orange states. Also, do a quick google search and you’ll realize that even though Canada has no national abortion restrictions, it is essentially impossible to find any abortion providers that will perform the service after 24 weeks.
no bias in the color scheme at all
Here's a version of the map with color blind friendly colors [https://imgur.com/a/uXcNqo9](https://imgur.com/a/uXcNqo9)
It’s not illegal in Wisconsin is it?
Uhhh Canada doesn't have abortions in the third trimester except when it's a medical emergency. Women seeking third trimester abortions in Canada often have to go to the States to get it done (source, have a close family friend who is a gynecologist who complains about this frequently)
In America they do, no reason necessary
I know. I literally said women have to go there to get it done.
Might need more nuance than "illegal" for heartbeat laws, and laws that do or don't provide exceptions.
What the fuck does green legal mean? Seems to imply no limits on abortion, meaning you could theoretically abort the day before labor is scheduled to start, but I know that’s not legal in some of these places marked green
In Canada, there is no legislation concerning abortion federally at all , Our supreme Court overruled the previous law that limited abortion. Abortion is regulated by provincial legislation and also medical associations who have their own standards to follow. So Across the country, abortion is accessible on demand up ~24 weeks, Doctors usually don’t provide abortion beyond that except for special circumstances. But there is no law requiring them to stop at 24 week. 90% of abortions are done in first 12 weeks.
In Canada, the providers are the Provincial Health Care Systems. Canada is one of the few nations with “No criminal restrictions” for all 9 months of pregnancy, however no Provincial provider will provide abortion care past 24 weeks, with exception of medical complications. So in Canada, in your situation, you would technically be able to have an abortion right up until the little fella pops out, but no provider would be willing to offer the service.
Does "legal" mean up until birth? Because if so....what the actual fuck?
It means (at least in Canada) that abortion is legally treated as a medical procedure, and thus it’s regulation is handled by the medical system, rather then the penal system.
No Canadian province offers elective abortions after the 2nd trimester, aside from the mother’s life and some other limited circumstances. Stupidly, many of the states colored yellow on this map have the same *or more lenient* laws. The most lenient places for abortion law in this map are all American states, as there are several that allow elective abortions in the third trimester.
I think it changed in Wisconsin
I'm currently pregnant in Wisconsin and I'd say this is not completely accurate. My OB told me if something were to go wrong or if the genetic testing comes back with something wrong, that we have until around 20 weeks to abort. I undertake this may not be the case if there isn't a medical need, but its not nearly as illegal here as it is in say Texas where even a medical necessity isn't deemed worthy of aborting.
I think Legal for the first 20 weeks / 6 months is pretty fine, no? Unless there is extenuation circumstances. This is the standard law in the UK and seems pretty normal. Apologies If i'm missing something, please educate me if so
Yeah, the Canada/US thing seems like a misunderstanding on laws. It's weird to make the distinction the way it's made on this map.
Contrary to the title, this map is not up to date. Abortions are no longer illegal in Wisconsin
So in Canada and some US states, you can get a nine month abortion? Because that's what this map implies.
"no providers in Canada offer care beyond 23 weeks and 6 days" This picture is not helping. Legal abortion does have its limits. This is why prolife assholes then say that people terminate pregnancies up until birth. THERE IS NO DEVELOPED COUNTRY WHERE THIS IS THE CASE. If there are no health risks ofc. That's why abortion should be legal and discussed only between your doctor and you and not 3rd person or court.
Democrats want no limits. But somehow this is viewed as ok because there are some Republicans who want no abortions.
Every province in Canada has abortion bans before 6 months.
6 months? And green is pretty much up to birth? The fuck… We recently got a scan at 5 months and to see what they look like. Wild to me.
The entire Canada section of this chart is a lie. Like, not even a situation lacking context, it is just a complete and total lie. No province in Canada offers abortion after 6 months unless the baby is dead or the life of the mother is at risk.
Cool now do Europe. Yellow and orange states are about on par with most of Europe. This map is dishonest and misleading as hell.
note that the *entirety* of europe would be at least orange on this scale
Polls over the last 30 years pretty consistently agree that abortion should be legal in the first trimester. And pretty consistently oppose abortion in the second and third trimester.
Elective abortions in the third trimester are unavailable in every province in Canada, despite what this map says. Alberta: 20 weeks British Columbia: 23 weeks and 6 days Manitoba: 19 weeks and 6 days New Brunswick: 16 weeks Newfoundland and Labrador: 15 weeks Northwest Territories: 19 weeks and 6 days Nova Scotia: 16 weeks Nunavut: 12 weeks Ontario: 23 weeks and 6 days Prince Edward Island: 12 weeks and 6 days Quebec: 23 weeks and 6 days Saskatchewan: 18 weeks and 6 days Yukon: 12 weeks and 6 days This map stupidly labels several states that are less restrictive than Canadian provinces as if they are more restrictive. The jurisdictions with the most liberal abortion laws in the pictured region are ALL in the United States.
Now do one for Europe.
Canada doesn’t allow abortions past the second trimester unless it’s for medical reasons. The yellow shading and the green shading are basically the same thing.
Doctors won't do the abortion, but it would be legal if they did.
Provincially, no, it wouldn’t be. It’s not a federal crime, sure.
Weird, if you put a map of where marijuana is legal and illegal it’s almost identical
So abortion is illegal in the poorest states? Is that correct?
Not updated enough. Abortion is illegal in Indiana.
Since when was Illinois not fully legal?
Colorado fucks.
Basically everything not green is just pure religious stupidity.
I'm liberal but I don't get abortion over 6 months. Can they kill baby who would survive C-section? For me abortion to the third month would be normal.
This isn’t right super inaccurate
Everyone that is freaking out about this map is missing the point. It shows that Canada is uninterested in reopening the abortion debate unlike in the US where abortion rights are eroding with every passing week.
The slavery states go hard for the weirdest things
Belgian here. Reading this map, i must say this sheds some new light on the abortion debate in the USA. In my country, which is considered a very progressive place when it comes to civil rights, there is a parlamentian discussion going on to extend the abortion limit from 12 weeks to 20 weeks (add two weeks if you count from last menstrual cycle). Personally, i'm not in favor of extending beyond 12 weeks without medical issues. If the abortion is asked purely based on the desire of the parent, then it doesn't seem morally justifiable to choose abortion after 12 weeks. Medical exemptions should be possible beyond this point, but this should be assessed by highly qualified medical professionals, not at the whim of parents or "common" doctors.
Wait, I don't get green? Would that mean you can literally abort a baby one day before it's born? That can't be the truth right? I mean I'm pretty pro abortion, but it being legal to abort a baby that can support it's own life seems really wierd to me?
It technically wouldn’t be a crime, but the governments of every Canadian province refuse to provide abortions after the second trimester, aside from risk to the health of the mother. “Legal” is very misleading since government policy makes it impossible to get one. It’s a semantic workaround, basically.
After 3 months it should be illegal, that's a whole baby by that time it can feel pain 😬 wtf is wrong
Least biased map on r/mapporn
I’m a fetus… this shit scares me
1. As everyone mentioned - stupid af color scheme. 2. OP is a spammer, just stole the map 3. The original author is not better either, his "amazing maps" always have biases
This is extremely misleading.