Global Developments in Laws on Induced Abortion: 2008-2019.

Context: Evidence shows that laws that restrict abortion do not eliminate its practice, but instead result in women having clandestine abortions, which are likely to be unsafe. It is important to periodically assess changes in the legal status of abortion around the world.

Methods: The criteria for legal abortion as of 2019 for 199 countries and territories were used to distribute them along a continuum of six mutually exclusive categories, from prohibited to permitted without restriction as to reason.

Looking back and moving forward: can we accelerate progress on adolescent pregnancy in the Americas?

Adolescent fertility rates in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) remain unacceptably high, especially compared to the region's declining total fertility rates. The Region has experienced the slowest progress of all regions in the world, and shows major differences between countries and between subgroups in countries. In 2013, LAC was also noted as the only region with a rising trend in pregnancies in adolescents younger than 15 years.

The Role of International Human Rights Norms in the Liberalization of Abortion Laws Globally.

International and regional human rights norms have evolved significantly to recognize that the denial of abortion care in a range of circumstances violates women's and girls' fundamental human rights. These increasingly progressive standards have played a critical role in transforming national-level abortion laws by both influencing domestic high court decisions on abortion and serving as a critical resource in advancing law and policy reform. Courts in countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Nepal have directly incorporated these standards into groundbreaking cases liberalizing abortion laws and increasing women's access to safe abortion services, demonstrating the influence of these human rights standards in advancing women's reproductive freedom.