Ahead of the oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the first direct challenge to Roe v. Wade in a generation, Family Research Council (FRC) researcher Mary Szoch took a look at abortion laws throughout the world and found that the United States is one in a "Gang of Six" that permits abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. China, North Korea, Vietnam, Canada, and South Korea are the only others. The rest have serious restrictions or ban abortion. She cites Europe as an example.
"48 out of the 51 European countries have prohibited abortion beyond 14 weeks, and only two countries there, the United Kingdom and Finland, actually allow abortion in the case of a mental health exception or a socio economic exception," Szoch details.
She tells American Family News the most common type of law regarding abortion is to outlaw abortion completely or to only allow it in the rare case that the mother's life is at risk.
"77 nations actually have that law," the researcher relays. "So when we look across the globe, the most common postures for the life of the unborn is to be pro-life, and the United States should be leading that charge."
The U.S. Supreme Court could help by overturning Roe v. Wade, which would leave the issue to the states to make their own choices. However, The U.S. House has passed and sent to the Senate a bill that would restore abortion up to birth should the court take that action.