How Many Countries Have Legalized Abortion Worldwide?

Roughly 75 to 77 countries allow abortion on request, and another 12 permit it on broad socioeconomic grounds, meaning about 57% of women of reproductive age live in countries with relatively liberal access.¹ The count of countries that have legalized abortion depends on what you mean by “legalized,” because only about 21 countries ban the procedure outright and roughly 96% permit it at least when the pregnant person’s life is in danger.² Most countries sit somewhere in between, allowing abortion under specific conditions such as risk to health, rape, or fetal abnormality.

The Five Legal Categories Countries Fall Into

Researchers and international bodies place countries along a spectrum rather than in a legal/illegal binary. The category determines who can obtain an abortion and on what grounds.

On request. No reason is required, though most countries impose a gestational limit, commonly 12 weeks. About 75 countries fall here, covering 34% of women of reproductive age worldwide.¹
Broad socioeconomic grounds. Abortion is allowed when continuing the pregnancy would cause significant social or economic hardship. Twelve countries use this framework, covering another 23% of women of reproductive age.¹
Health grounds. Abortion is permitted to protect physical or mental health. Some countries interpret “health” broadly enough that it functions like on-request access; others define it narrowly.
Life of the pregnant person only. About 45 countries limit abortion to situations where continuing the pregnancy would kill or gravely endanger the patient.¹
Prohibited entirely. Approximately 21 countries maintain a total ban with no legal exception.²

Many countries layer additional exceptions on top of their primary framework. Allowances for rape, incest, and severe fetal abnormality are common even in otherwise restrictive systems. The legal category alone does not always predict real-world availability.

Gestational Limits and Extra Requirements

Even in countries that allow abortion on request, the window varies. Twelve weeks is the most common cutoff, used across much of Europe including Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Ireland, and Greece. France, Spain, and Romania extend it to 14 weeks. Sweden permits abortion on request through 18 weeks. Canada has no gestational limit in its federal law.³

Procedural hurdles can also narrow access. Thirteen European countries, among them Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Hungary, require a mandatory waiting period between the initial consultation and the procedure. The World Health Organization considers such waiting periods medically unnecessary.

India illustrates a tiered approach. Under its Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, as amended in 2021, one doctor can approve an abortion up to 20 weeks. Between 20 and 24 weeks, two doctors must agree, and only for specified categories including sexual assault survivors. Beyond 24 weeks, abortion is permitted only for substantial fetal abnormalities diagnosed by a medical board.⁴

Where Access Stands Region by Region

Europe

Most European countries allow abortion on request in the first trimester. In March 2024, France became the first country to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right, embedding a “guaranteed freedom” to abort into its 1958 constitution. Poland sits at the other end, permitting abortion only when the pregnant person’s life or health is at risk or when the pregnancy resulted from a crime. A 2020 court ruling struck down its previous exception for severe fetal abnormality.⁵ Malta, long one of Europe’s only total-ban countries, amended its criminal code in 2023 to permit abortion when the patient faces an immediate risk to life or grave jeopardy to health.

The Americas

Latin America has seen what activists call a “Green Wave” of liberalization. Argentina legalized abortion on request in 2020. Colombia’s constitutional court followed in 2022, legalizing the procedure through 24 weeks.⁶ In September 2023, Mexico’s Supreme Court struck down all federal criminal penalties for abortion, though roughly 20 of the country’s 32 states still have criminalization provisions that require separate legal challenges.

Central America diverges sharply. El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua prohibit abortion entirely. Honduras embedded its total ban into its constitution, and El Salvador has prosecuted women who experienced miscarriages under aggravated homicide statutes.³

In North America, Canada has no federal law restricting abortion at any gestational stage. The United States has fractured along state lines since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. As of early 2026, 13 states ban abortion entirely with criminal penalties, while 25 states and the District of Columbia protect access through state statutes or constitutions. Several states have enacted “shield laws” to protect providers who serve out-of-state patients via telehealth.

Africa

The continent covers a wide range. South Africa has permitted abortion on request since its 1996 Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act. Ethiopia expanded access through a 2005 penal code reform. In total, about eight African countries allow abortion on request. Six African nations still prohibit it entirely, and many others allow it only to save the pregnant person’s life.³ The Maputo Protocol, an African regional human rights instrument, calls on member states to permit abortion in cases of rape, incest, risk to life or health, and severe fetal abnormality, though many signatories have not aligned their domestic laws with those provisions.

Asia and the Pacific

Asia includes both some of the world’s most populous abortion-on-request countries and some of its most restrictive. China, Vietnam, and Cambodia allow abortion on request. South Korea decriminalized abortion in January 2021 after its constitutional court struck down the prior ban, allowing the procedure through about 22 weeks. India’s tiered system permits abortion up to 24 weeks for specified categories. The Philippines maintains a total ban. Laos and Myanmar restrict abortion to life-saving circumstances. Iran allows abortion to save the pregnant person’s life and in cases of fetal abnormality, but not on broader grounds.

The Countries With Total or Near-Total Bans

About 21 countries prohibit abortion without any legal exception, meaning the procedure is barred even when carrying the pregnancy to term would kill the pregnant person.² They include Andorra in Europe, El Salvador and Honduras in Central America, Egypt and Senegal in Africa, and the Philippines and Laos in Asia. Roughly 118 million women of reproductive age live under total bans.

Another 45 or so countries permit abortion only to save the pregnant person’s life.¹ In practice, “life-of-the-mother” exceptions are often worded vaguely enough that doctors hesitate to act until a patient is critically ill. Laws use phrasing like “the continuation of the pregnancy endangers the life” or require that “abortion is the only way to save the woman’s life,” leaving significant discretion to individual providers and creating a chilling effect that delays care.⁷ Nigeria and Myanmar both fall into this life-only category.

The Direction of Travel

Over the past three decades, the dominant global trend has run toward broader access. Since 1994, more than 60 countries have expanded the legal grounds for obtaining an abortion.¹ Only five countries moved in the opposite direction in that period by removing grounds or reducing gestational limits. The United States, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Poland account for the most significant rollbacks.³

Recent expansions include Argentina in 2020, South Korea in 2021, Colombia in 2022, Mexico at the federal level in 2023, and France’s constitutional amendment in 2024. Court rulings, legislative action, and sustained public advocacy have all played a part. The liberalizations have given roughly 825 million additional women of reproductive age access to broader legal grounds than they had 30 years ago.

1
NCBI. Global Progress in Abortion Law Reform: A Comparative Legal Analysis Since the International Conference on Population and Development (1994-2023)
2
Center for Reproductive Rights. World’s Abortion Laws
3
Council on Foreign Relations. Abortion Law: Global Comparisons
4
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021
5
OHCHR. Poland Violated Women’s Rights by Unduly Restricting Access to Abortion
6
Council on Foreign Relations. What Colombia’s Legalization of Abortion Means for Latin America
7
NCBI. Global Abortion Policies Database: A Descriptive Analysis of the Legal Categories of Lawful Abortion