Japan will legalize the use of the abortion pill, but a woman will need to obtain her husband’s consent to use it, the government announced Tuesday.
The government’s policy toward the pill is similar to that of surgical abortions, which Japanese women can also obtain with spousal consent, according to the Guardian.
In principle, it is an immoral policy. Unborn babies have a right to life even if both spouses consent to an abortion. This development in Japan illustrates, however, that the debate surrounding abortion skews more pro-choice in the United States than it does in much of the rest of the world.
In the United States, the abortion law causing the greatest uproar in recent months has been Mississippi’s 15-week ban, the subject of the pending ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The gestational limit of the Mississippi law is commonplace among most European countries, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights (certainly not a pro-life organization).
In France, abortions are illegal after the 16th week of pregnancy. The limit is 14 weeks in Germany and Spain, 90 days (just under 13 weeks) in Italy and Austria, 12 weeks in Switzerland and the Czech Republic, and 10 weeks in Portugal. Only the Netherlands sets its limit at fetal viability, which the government determines to be at 24 weeks.
The same is true in the antipodes, where Australia bans abortions after 12 weeks, though New Zealand’s limit is 20 weeks.
Pro-lifers in America should not be reticent about their preferred policy outcomes. Many of us want a full ban on abortion from conception to birth. It is true that if we reach this goal, we would in turn be harsher on abortion than much of the rest of the world and subject to a version of the same critiques we levy against pro-choicers now.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, as being like other nations does not always mean being right. The unique nature of the abortion debate in America does illustrate, however, that any allegations of radicalism pro-choicers throw at the pro-life movement bounce off the target and stick to the source.