Where there is a specific Recommendation, this is stated. Otherwise, these are excerpts. Grounds-based approaches to restricting access to abortion should be revised in favour of making abortion available on the request of the woman, girl or other pregnant person. The Abortion Care Guideline recommends against laws and other regulations that restrict abortion by grounds.
The guideline recommends abortion be available on the request of the woman, girl or other pregnant person. Until they are replaced with abortion on request, any existing grounds should be formulated and applied in a manner consistent with international human rights law. This means that the content, interpretation and application of grounds-based law and policy should be revised to ensure human rights compliance.
When there is no explicit reference to an issue covered in the questionnaire in the relevant document s , this is noted and no interpretation was made.
This requires that abortion is available when carrying a pregnancy to term would cause the woman, girl or other pregnant person substantial pain or suffering, including but not limited to situations where the pregnancy is not viable.
Grounds-based approaches that require fetal impairments to be fatal for abortion to be lawful frustrate providers and leave women no choice but to continue with pregnancy. Being required to continue with a pregnancy that causes significant distress violates numerous human rights. While methods of abortion may vary by gestational age, pregnancy can safely be ended regardless of gestational age. Gestational age limits are not evidence-based; they restrict when lawful abortion may be provided by any method.
