Abortion Laws

However there are no any laws were stated the abortion is legal or illegal in the past but from the recording of The Code of Hammurabi ca. 1760 BC required monetary compensation for causing a woman to miscarry. But it is not yet complies with any regular law about the abortion after it until the end of 13 century. The Roman Republic is no listed out any law about the abortion at the early period, but only stated abortion is based on the maintaining women’s physical appearance or the family size or adultery. Until the year 211 AD, the late Roman is noted the abortion of a baby is over come of the human right and will be punish temporary exile. It is because the Roman was concern about the population growth but not issue of morality.

At the 18^th century, the common law of UK and US is allowed the abortion if performed before “quickening”. Quickening mean that when the movements of the fetus could first be felt by the woman. And abortion was also punishable "if the foetus is already formed" but not yet quickened, according to Henry Bracton, an English Jurist. 1861, The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Offences against the Person Act 1861 which outlaws abortion. 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. 1967 – The Abortion Act (effective 1968) legalized abortion in the United Kingdom. 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. From 1820 to 1900, the effort of the American Medical Association and legislators make the abortion outlawed in U.S. In the 1973 case, Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court struck down state laws banning abortion, ruling that such laws violated an implied right to privacy in the United States Constitution. In other country, under Vladimir Lenin, the Soviet Union legalized all abortions in 1920, but this was fully reversed in 1936 by Joseph Stalin in order to increase population growth. In the 1930s, several countries (Poland, Turkey, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Mexico) legalized abortion in some special cases (rape, threat to mother's health, fetal malformation). In 1948 abortion was legalized in Japan, 1952 in Yugoslavia (on a limited basis) and 1955 in the Soviet Union (on demand). Some Soviet allies (Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania) legalized abortion in the late fifties under Soviet pressure. Canada (1969), the United States (1973 in most states, pursuant to the federal Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion nationwide), France (1975), Austria (1975), New Zealand (1977), Italy (1978), the Netherlands (1980) and Belgium (1990)was followed the British law when the Abortion Act was written. In 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.

In Malaysia, There was two section of penal code was related with the abortion laws. That section is Section 312, 314 Penal Code. In Section 312 penal code, whoever voluntarily causes a woman with child to miscarry shall be punished with imprisonment up to 3 years or fine a definite amount or both. In additional, if the woman is quick with child, the punishment will be imprison up to 7 years and fine. Besides that, a woman who causes herself to miscarry is within the ambit of S312.However, the code was not apply to a situation about abort the fetus which will cause physically or mentally injury or risk to the mother’s body. In Section 314 Penal Code, Whoever causes death to the pregnant mother by an act done with intent to cause miscarriage, shall be punished with punishment imprison up to 10 years and liable to fine. If the act is done without the woman’s consent, shall be punished with imprisonment up to 20 years. There are no sum is expressed to which the fine may extend, the amount to which the offender is liable is unlimited, but shall not be excessive. The example of case happen in Malaysia was PP v Dr Nadason Kanagalingam [1985] which under the Section 312 and the case Mary Shim v PP [1962] which under Section 314.