Abortion in Armenia

Abortion in Armenia is legal on request up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, and in special circumstances between 12 weeks and 22 weeks.[1] Abortion has been legal since November 23, 1955, when Armenia was a republic of the Soviet Union;[2][3] the current abortion legislation dates from May 2002. It allows for pregnancies to be ended on request by the mother until the twelfth week and for medical and social reasons until the twenty-second week with a doctor's approval.[4] Traditionally, abortion was used as a manner of birth control in Armenia[5] and the number of maternal deaths from abortion complications used to be very high (between 10 and 20% in 2000).[2] After massive reforms, the number of deaths declined to 5% in 2005.[2]

In 2014, 21.77% of pregnancies in Armenia ended in abortion, a slight rise from the all-time low recorded in 2010 (21.52%).[6] The United Nations reported an abortion rate (expressed as the number of abortions per 1000 women aged 15–44) of 13.9 in 2004[7] and 16.9 as of 2010.[8]

In 2016, a law banning sex selective abortion was introduced. The new law also introduced mandatory counseling before abortion and a 3 days waiting period. The law has been criticized as using sex-selective abortion as a pretext to restrict access to abortion, although the government denied this, and claimed that it did not intend to question women's right to access safe abortion.[9]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.womenonwaves.org/en/page/5126/armenia--abortion-law
  2. 1 2 3 National Statistical Service [Armenia]; Ministry of Health [Armenia]; ORC Macro (December 2006). "Abortion" (PDF). Armenia Demographic and Health Survey 2005 (Report). p. 73. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "Armenia". Abortion Policies: A Global Review (DOC). Country Profiles. United Nations Population Division. 2002. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  4. ↑ International Planned Parenthood Foundation European Network (January 2009). Abortion Legislation in Europe (PDF) (Report). pp. 6–7. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  5. ↑ International Planned Parenthood Foundation European Network (February 2004). Abortion Legislation in Europe (PDF) (Report). p. 5. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  6. ↑ Johnston, Wm. Robert (25 February 2017). "Historical abortion statistics, Armenia". Johnston's Archive. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  7. ↑ "World Abortion Policies 2007". United Nations. 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  8. ↑ "World Abortion Policies 2013". United Nations. 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  9. ↑ http://www.astra.org.pl/repronews/449-restrictions-in-the-law-on-abortion-in-armenia.html


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