{"id":13715,"date":"2012-08-24T06:04:02","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T10:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=13715"},"modified":"2012-08-24T06:04:02","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T10:04:02","slug":"the-5-countries-the-gop-would-model-u-s-abortion-law-on-with-its-new-anti-abortion-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/08\/the-5-countries-the-gop-would-model-u-s-abortion-law-on-with-its-new-anti-abortion-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 countries the GOP would model U.S. abortion law on with its new anti-abortion platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Megan Carpentier<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the tremendous pressure on the Republican party following<\/span> Rep. Todd Akin\u2019s (R-MO) comments<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> about \u201clegitimate rape,\u201d supposedly natural contraception and abortion, CNN<\/span> reported last night<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> that the Republican platform to be affirmed at the convention last week will contain a call for a so-called \u201cpersonhood\u201d amendment to the Constitution that is<\/span> similar to Akin\u2019s 2009 anti-abortion legislation with presumptive VP nominee Paul Ryan (R-WI)<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Like the Akin-Ryan bill, the \u201cpersonhood\u201d amendment envisioned by the GOP platform would contain<\/span> no exceptions to its bans on abortion<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span>, even for rape or incest.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, if it is similar<\/span> to the Mississippi personhood amendment debated late last year<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span>, rape and incest will not be the only exceptions to the GOP\u2019s anti-abortion amendment. Were it to pass, it could also criminalize everything from IUDs and oral contraceptives to IVF and stem cell research \u2014 and it wouldn\u2019t have an exception for the life or health of the mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

The draft language obtained by CNN<\/span> reads<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n

\u201cFaithful to the \u2018self-evident\u2019 truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,\u201d the draft platform declares. \u201cWe support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment\u2019s protections apply to unborn children.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Personhood USA president Keith Mason confirmed to Raw Story that amendments like the one proposed by the GOP platform committee don\u2019t contain any exceptions. \u201cYou don\u2019t need any exceptions because it\u2019s a principle,\u201d he said, \u201cYou don\u2019t need further clarification.\u201d In states where they seek to pass such amendments, Mason acknowledged that there are statutory issues to work out after an amendment passes \u2014 much like in Mississippi where officials pushing the amendment<\/span> acknowledged<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> that \u201cthere are some things that will have to be worked out at a later date.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Mason said that Personhood USA does not support exceptions for women impregnated through rape or incest, and called the current constitutional exception for the health of the woman, \u201ca broad exception that is sneaky terminology.\u201d As for the life of the mother, Mason said, \u201cThe life of the mother would never be affected by a personhood amendment because she could always receive life-saving treatments,\u201d adding \u201cOur laws already protect women\u2019s lives, it\u2019s the Hippocratic Oath\u2026 you do what you can to save both lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, the law that allows abortion in the United States even in the third trimester for the life (or health) of the woman is the same one that would be overturned by the personhood amendment called for in the GOP platform.<\/span><\/p>\n

So which countries provide no exceptions to their laws outlawing all abortion?<\/span> There are currently only 5<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n

1. Malta<\/span>
\n 2. Dominican Republic<\/span>
\n 3. El Salvador<\/span>
\n 4. Nicaragua<\/span>
\n 5. Chile<\/span><\/p>\n

Even Saudi Arabia allows women to receive abortions for their own health or lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

The list of countries that don\u2019t allow women to receive abortions for health-related reasons (let alone rape or incest) is a bit longer, but it includes Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, Andorra, Venezuela and (most famously for Americans) Ireland. Brazil, the Sudan, Mali and Bhutan don\u2019t allow abortions to preserve the health of the mother, but they do allow rape and incest victims to receive abortions. Zimbabwe, Togo and Panama don\u2019t allow women to have abortions to preserve their mental health, but they do allow rape and incest victims to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

But even if the GOP platform were amended to allow women to have abortions to preserve their own health or lives, by eliminating abortion access for rape and incest victims, the United States would join countries like Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Jamaica, Peru, Costa Rica and Liechtenstein.<\/span><\/p>\n

A study<\/span> published in The Lancet<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> last January shows that<\/span> the countries with the most stringent restrictions on abortion also have the highest rates of unsafe abortion. <\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The rate of unsafe abortion in Africa was 28 per 1,000 women of childbearing age and 31 per 1,000 in Latin America, regions where abortion is highly restricted in almost all countries, according to the study led by Gilda Sedgh at the Guttmacher Institute in New York, using the most recent data gathered in 2008. That compares with less than 0.5 per 1,000 in western Europe and North America.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unsafe abortions result in 200 deaths for every 100,000 abortions performed globally, or 350 times the current rate in the United States, according to the study. Legalizing abortion in South Africa (1997) and Nepal (2002), resulted in a 91 percent reduction in abortion-related deaths in the former country and a 50 percent decline in the rate of abortion-related complications seen in hospitals in the latter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Megan Carpentier Despite the tremendous pressure on the Republican party following Rep. Todd Akin\u2019s (R-MO) comments about \u201clegitimate rape,\u201d supposedly natural contraception and abortion,..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,166,172,181,97,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discrimination","category-government","category-healthcare","category-labor","category-us-news","category-women"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/woman_holding_stomach_shutterstock_13715_6a310.jpg?fit=615%2C345&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}