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. 2018 Sep 12;18(1):35.
doi: 10.1186/s12914-018-0174-2.

Global Abortion Policies Database: a new approach to strengthening knowledge on laws, policies, and human rights standards

Brooke Ronald Johnson Jr  1 , Antonella Francheska Lavelanet  2 , Stephanie Schlitt  3
Affiliations

Global Abortion Policies Database: a new approach to strengthening knowledge on laws, policies, and human rights standards

Brooke Ronald Johnson Jr et al. BMC Int Health Hum Rights. .

Abstract

Background: The Global Abortion Policies Database (GAPD), launched in June 2017, provides a verifiable, comprehensive, nuanced approach to information and data sources on abortion law and policy. Abortion laws, policies, and guidelines from United Nations (UN) and World Health Organization (WHO) Member States are juxtaposed to information and recommendations from WHO safe abortion guidance, national sexual and reproductive health indicators, and relevant UN human rights bodies' concluding observations to countries.

Main body: The Global Abortion Policies Database aims to increase transparency of information and accountability of states for the protection of individuals' health and human rights. The database presents current information on abortion laws and policies that goes beyond categories of lawful abortion to include information on additional access requirements, service provision, conscientious objection, and penalties. Wide-ranging variations among countries' legal requirements and criminal penalties raise questions about the evidentiary and human rights basis for abortion laws and policies. Source documents found in the database highlight that in many jurisdictions legal and policy guidance is either non-existent, not clear, or conflicting. By juxtaposing a jurisdiction's abortion laws and policies to relevant WHO guidance and by facilitating comparisons of countries' sexual and reproductive health indicators, the database can enable deep policy analysis of states' obligations to meet the health needs and human rights of individuals in the context of abortion. Policy analysis in the context of authoritative guidance on human rights standards can enable health and rights advocates to hold governments accountable for respecting, protecting, and fulfilling individuals' human rights.

Conclusion: The GAPD is a comprehensive tool that can be used to strengthen knowledge, inform law and policy research to generate evidence on the impact of laws and policies in practice, and facilitate greater awareness of the many challenges to creating enabling policy environments for safe abortion.

Keywords: Abortion guidelines; Abortion human rights standards; Abortion laws; Abortion policies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ information

BRJ is a scientist and AFL is a medical officer in the Department of Reproductive Health and Research and the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), World Health Organization. SS is an HRP consultant.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

BRJ and AFL are WHO/HRP staff members involved in the management of the Global Abortion Policies Database. SS is an HRP consultant who provides technical support for GAPD research and updates. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, the World Health Organization.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

    1. World Health Organization. Global abortion policies database. 2018. http://srhr.org/abortion-policies/. Accessed 1 Sept 2018
    1. Johnson BR, Jr, Mishra V, Lavelanet AF, Khosla R, Ganatra B. A global database of abortion laws, policies, health standards and guidelines. Bull World Health Organ. 2017;95:542–544. doi: 10.2471/BLT.17.197442. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . Safe abortion: technical and policy guidance for health systems. 2. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2012. - PubMed
    1. Finlay JE, Canning D, Po JYT Reproductive health laws around the world. Program on the Global Demography of Aging Working Paper No. 96; October 2012. https://cdn1.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1288/2013/10/PGDA_.... Accessed 1 Sept 2018.
    1. Harvard School of Public Health. Annual review of population law database – abortion laws of the world, 1974-2008. http://ghdx.healthdata.org/record/annual-review-population-law-database-.... Accessed 1 Sept 2018.

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