While much has been made of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, many other countries have also rolled back their abortion laws in recent years.
The US Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision on Friday (local time) that recognised a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and legalised it nationwide.
The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
In the last three decades, at least 59 countries have expanded abortion access whereas only around 11 countries have restricted it, according to Foreign Policy.
Joining the US in dialling back abortion rights over recent years are: Russia, Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey, Belarus, Poland, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and North Korea, according to Foreign Policy.
Latin America
El Salvador has some of the world's strictest abortion laws and has banned it without exception since 1988. In Honduras, it's been completely illegal since 1985 but the ban was added to the country's constitution in 2021. In Nicaragua, abortion was made completely illegal in 2006.
Laws have eased in other countries in Latin America. In Chile, a push for legalisation narrowly failed, while in Mexico abortion was decriminalised last September.
Europe
The majority of countries around Europe have legalised or decriminalised abortion but there are still some glaring admissions.
In 2011, then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed into law tighter restrictions for abortions, including a mandatory waiting period and more requirements for counselling.
Turkey legalised abortions in 1983 but current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan imposed many new restrictions which forced some public hospitals to cease administering abortions entirely.
Abortions have been banned for decades in Poland. It was made illegal in 1993 and tougher restrictions were imposed in 2020 when the country’s constitutional court ruled abortion on the grounds of fetal defects was illegal.
Abortion remains legal in Belarus but in 2013 a bylaw was passed that significantly decreased the "social conditions" under which it's legal to get an abortion until the 22nd week.
Asia
Most Asians have access to abortion but it is still banned in many countries in the region.
In Turkmenistan, abortion access was severely cut in 2022 as part of drastic new restrictions on women's rights while in North Korea it was effectively made illegal by a dictatorial decree in 2015.
In Iran, abortion is legal only in cases where the mother's life is in danger and in cases where the fetus is not viable after birth.
After the US Supreme Court's decision, rumours have been circulating on social media that the Taliban now has less restrictive abortion laws than the US.
Current abortion laws in Afghanistan state they're illegal unless the life of the mother is at risk or the baby's life is endangered, interpreted as the baby having a severe disability or low quality of life.
In the US, there are 26 states which have laws that indicate they could outlaw or set extreme limits on abortions, effectively banning abortion in those states, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
There are still 19 states where abortion is still permitted, so the notion that the Taliban have less restrictive abortion laws than the US as a whole is wrong.
