Timeline of reproductive rights legislation

Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights pertaining to issues of reproductive health: sexual education, family planning, including contraception and abortion, as well as access and affordability of services.

17th century to 19th century

• 1765 - Post-quickening abortion was no longer considered homicide in England, but William Blackstone called it "a very heinous misdemeanor".
• 1803 - United Kingdom enacts Lord Ellenborough's Act, making abortion after quickening a capital crime, and providing lesser penalties for the felony of abortion before quickening.
• 1842 - The Shogunate in Japan bans induced abortion in Edo. The law does not affect the rest of the country.
• 1861 - The British Parliament passes the Offences Against The Person Act which outlaws abortion.
• The Parliament of Canada unifies criminal law in all provinces, banning abortion.
• 1873 - The passage of the Comstock Act in the United States makes it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail, including contraceptive devices and information on contraception or abortion. (see also advertisement of abortion services).
• 1820–1900 - Through the efforts primarily of physicians in the American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions in the U.S. were outlawed.
• 1850–1920 - During the fight for women's suffrage in the U.S., some notable first-wave feminists, such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Wollstonecraft, opposed abortion.
• 1918 In the United States, Margaret Sanger was charged under the New York law against disseminating contraceptive information. On appeal, her conviction was reversed on the grounds that contraceptive devices could legally be promoted for the cure and prevention of disease.

1920s to 1960s

• 1920 - Lenin legalized all abortions in the Soviet Union.
• 1936 - A US federal appeals court ruled in United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries that the federal government could not interfere with doctors providing contraception to their patients.
• 1935 - Nazi Germany amended its eugenics law, Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, to promote abortion for women who have congenital and genetic disorders, or whose unborn fetuses have such hereditary disorders.
• 1935 - Iceland became the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion under limited circumstances.
• 1936 - Joseph Stalin reversed Lenin's legalization of abortion in the Soviet Union to increase population growth.
• 1936 - Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the SS, creates the "Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion". Himmler hoped to reverse a decline in the "Aryan" birthrate which he attributed to homosexuality among men and abortion among German women.
• 1938 - In Britain, Dr. Aleck Bourne aborted the pregnancy of a young girl who had been raped by soldiers. Bourne was acquitted after turning himself into authorities. The legal precedent of allowing abortion in order to avoid mental or physical damage was picked up by the Commonwealth of Nations.
• 1938 - Abortion legalized on a limited basis in Sweden.
• 1948 - The Eugenic Protection Act in Japan expanded the circumstances in which abortion is allowed.
• 1965 - The U.S. Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut struck down one of the remaining Comstock laws, the state bans on contraception.
• 1966 - Mississippi reformed its abortion law and became the first U.S. state to allow abortion in cases of rape.
• 1967 - The Abortion Act (effective 1968) legalized abortion in the United Kingdom [except in Northern Ireland. In the U.S., Colorado, California, and North Carolina reformed their abortion laws based on the 1962 ALI Model Penal Code (MPC).
• 1968 - Maryland and Georgia reformed their abortion laws based on the ALI MPC.
• 1969 - Arkansas, New Mexico, Kansas, Oregon, and Delaware reformed their abortion laws based on the ALI MPC.
• 1969 - Canada began to allow abortion for selective reasons.
• 1969 - The ruling in the Victorian case of R v Davidson defined for the first time which abortions are lawful in Australia.
• 1969–1973 - The Jane Collective operated in Chicago, offering illegal abortions.

1970s to present

• 1970 - Hawaii, New York, Alaska and Washington repealed their abortion laws and allowed abortion on demand; South Carolina and Virginia reformed their abortion laws based on the ALI MPC.
• 1970 - Title X of the U.S. federal Public Health Service Act enacted, dedicated to providing family planning services for those in need.
• 1972 - Florida reformed its abortion law based on the ALI MPC.
• 1973 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, declared all the individual state bans on abortion during the first and second trimesters to be unconstitutional. The Court also legalized abortion in the third trimester when a woman's doctor believes the abortion is necessary for her physical or mental health.
• 1973–1980 - France (1975), West Germany (1976), New Zealand (1977), Italy (1978), and the Netherlands (1980) legalized abortion in limited circumstances.
• 1979 - The People's Republic of China enacted a one-child policy, leaving some women to either undergo an abortion or violate the policy and face economic penalties in some circumstances.
• 1979 - Ireland, Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 allowed sale of contraceptives, upon presentation of a prescription.
• 1983 - Ireland, by popular referendum, added an amendment to its Constitution recognizing "the right to life of the unborn." Abortion is still illegal in Ireland, except as urgent medical procedures to save a woman's life.
• 1985 - Ireland, Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, 1985 allowed sale of condoms and spermicides to people over 18 without having to present a prescription.
• 1988 - France legalized the "abortion pill" mifepristone (RU-486).
• 1990 - The Abortion Act in the UK was amended so that abortion is legal only up to 24 weeks, rather than 28, except in unusual cases.
• 1993 - Ireland Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, 1992 allowed sale of contraceptives without prescription.
• 1993 - Poland banned abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, severe congenital disorders, or threat to the life of the pregnant woman.
• 1996 - Republic of South Africa the 'Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act 92 of 1996' comes into effect (Repealing the 'Abortion and Sterilization Act 2 of 1975' which only allowed abortions in certain circumstances) lawfully permitting abortions by choice. Act is often challenged in Court.
• 1998 - Republic of South Africa the abortion question is finally answered when the Transvaal Provincial Division in "'Christian Lawyers Association and Others v Minister of Health and Others (50 BMLR 241)" where the Court held that abortions are legal in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.
• 1999 - In the United States, Congress passed a ban on intact dilation and extraction, which President Bill Clinton vetoed.
• 2000 - Mifepristone (RU-486) approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• 2003 - The U.S. enacted the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and President George W. Bush signed it into law. After the law was challenged in three appeals courts, the U.S. Supreme Court held that it was constitutional because, unlike the earlier Nebraska state law, it was not vague or overly broad. The court also held that banning the procedure did not constitute an "undue burden," even without a health exception. (see also: Gonzales v. Carhart)
• 2005 - The U.S. Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (implemented in January 2007) prevented college health centers and many health care providers from participating in the drug pricing discount program, which formerly allowed contraceptives to be sold to students and women of low income in the United States at low cost. As a result, 3 million college students and hundreds of thousands of low-income women have lost access to affordable birth control.
• 2007 - The Parliament of Portugal voted to legalize abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy. This followed a referendum that, while revealing that a majority of Portuguese voters favored legalization of early-stage abortions, failed due to low voter turnout. President Cavaco Silva signed the measure into effect in April, 2007.
• 2007 - The government of Mexico City legalizes abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and offers free abortions. On August 28, 2008, the Mexican Supreme Court upholds the law.