NationStates Jolt Archive

I realised that some legislation is needed surrounding abortion.

THE ABORTION ACT

Recognising that some pregnant women, in some circumstances, wish to terminate their pregnancy for various reasons.

Realising that the illegality of such practices would only make them practiced illegally, and dangerously.

Realising that a lack of legislation surrounding such practices could be dangerous, and could lead to amoral destruction of unborn children.

Further recognising that there are moral and ethical reasons surrounding this issue.

Aiming to protect the human rights of both unborn babies and pregnant women.

Defines induced abortion as the deliberate removal of an embryo or foetus from the uterus.

Defining injury to a person’s health as damage to the well-being of an individual, either mentally or physically.

Hereby declares

1) Induced Abortion is to be made legal in all member states, in the following circumstances only:

i) To save the life of the pregnant woman.
ii) Under 24 weeks to avoid injury to the physical or mental health of the woman or of the existing child(ren).
iii) Under 24 weeks if the unborn child(ren) is/are a result of a sexual assault upon the mother.

2)The choice to ask for an induced abortion from the relevant medical authorities of the state is to be taken by the pregnant woman alone, and cannot be decided for her by family members or any other persons. The decision should be made by a parent or guardian if the pregnant person is under the age of consent decided by the member nation.

3) Medical staff of member nations are not obliged to perform abortion related procedure if they are forbidden to do so for religious reasons, or if they hold strong moral objections to it.

4) It must be decided by at least two trained medical professionals that the abortive procedure is legal within the limitations laid out in Section 1 of this Act.

5) Abortions performed by persons who are not either a qualified doctor or a qualified nurse are illegal.

6) Abortions performed after 24 weeks are illegal, accept if the abortion is for the reason given in subsection i) of Section 1 of this Act.


Any suggestions are welcome, this is my first attempt at making a WA resolution.

I realised that some legislation is needed surrounding abortion.

THE ABORTION ACT

Recognising that some pregnant women, in some circumstances, wish to terminate their pregnancy for various reasons.

Realising that the illegality of such practices would only make them practiced illegally, and dangerously.

Realising that a lack of legislation surrounding such practices could be dangerous, and could lead to amoral destruction of unborn children.

Further recognising that there are moral and ethical reasons surrounding this issue.

Aiming to protect the human rights of both unborn babies and pregnant women.

Defines induced abortion as the deliberate removal of an embryo of foetus from the uterus.

Defining injury to a person’s health as damage to the well-being of an individual, either mentally or physically.

Hereby declares

1) Induced Abortion is to be made legal in all member states, in the following circumstances only:

i) To save the life of the pregnant woman.
ii) Under 24 weeks to avoid injury to the physical or mental health of the woman or of the existing child(ren).
iii) Under 24 weeks if the unborn child(ren) is/are a result of a sexual assault upon the mother.

2) Medical staff of member nations are not obliged to perform abortion related procedure if they are forbidden to do so for religious reasons, or if they hold strong moral objections to it.
3) It must be decided by at least two trained medical professionals that the abortive procedure is legal within the limitations laid out in Section 1 of this Act.
4) Abortions performed by persons who are not either a qualified doctor or a qualified nurse are illegal.
5) Abortions performed after 24 weeks are illegal, accept if the abortion is for the reason given in subsection i) of Section 1 of this Act.

Any suggestions are welcome, this is my first attempt at making a WA resolution.

A very interesting proposal and I commend you for tackling this difficult subject. You have my sympathy as well. It might be of some assistance for you to read the discussion of a similar proposal that my delegation has been laboring with.

The thread is here. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=576847)

The latest proposal text is here. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14478606&postcount=210)

Thanks for your support. I read your draft with interest, but as there are many differences between them I'm going to continue working on mine.

EDIT: I propose the addition of a new section after the first one which will read:
"The choice to ask for an induced abortion from the relevant medical authorities of the state is to be taken by the pregnant woman alone, and cannot be decided for her by family members or any other persons. The decision should be made by a parent or guardian if the pregnant person is under the age of consent decided by the member nation."

We would actually support Ambassador Arororugul's proposal over this one, if we were to support one, as this seems even more restrictive then theirs. First you state:

Realising that the illegality of such practices would only make them practiced illegally, and dangerously.

Then you put in

1) Induced Abortion is to be made legal in all member states, in the following circumstances only:

i) To save the life of the pregnant woman.
ii) Under 24 weeks to avoid injury to the physical or mental health of the woman or of the existing child(ren).
iii) Under 24 weeks if the unborn child(ren) is/are a result of a sexual assault upon the mother.

Which means that anyone wanting a abortion who doesn't meet that criteria (which, I would say, would be quite a few of them, if not the majority) will still seek one out illegally, which goes against the statement in your preamble.

Another issue we have is the setting of 24 weeks. What if the gestation period is longer than 9 months? Not all members of the WA are actually human, so this could cause some problems for some, while letting others get away with late-term abortions if it is less than 9 months.

-Ariovist Lynxkind, Ambassador

OOC: This was more of an experiment than anything realy, to try my hand at writing a proposal. I agree with you that Arororugul's proposal is actualy much better and I have no real intention to take this very far. I would love to get into writing proposals however and this seemed like a good idea to start with. :D

OOC: This was more of an experiment than anything realy, to try my hand at writing a proposal. I agree with you that Arororugul's proposal is actualy much better and I have no real intention to take this very far. I would love to get into writing proposals however and this seemed like a good idea to start with. :D

OOC: Ah, ah k. I would have suggested picking something that you could possibly nut a passable resolution out of, because while it it is practice you could actually end up with something good. Another suggestion is to suspend your reality when it comes to writing, as quite a lot of nations will not recognise their constituents as humans (having them as elves, some form of alien, or, as you can see from here, sapient bears). Also you need to take into consideration that nations will run on different Tech levels, some as Past Tech, some Modern Tech, Some Future Tech, while some even run on Myth Tech. It is kinda hard to cover all bases, admittedly, but yeah, we are a diverse bunch ;)

OOC: Cheers for the advice. I didn't realise it was all so diverse; I was obviously aware fo MT and FT differences but different species?!?!

I didn't realise it was all so diverse; I was obviously aware fo MT and FT differences but different species?!?!
Yes! :D

As a member nation, i would not support nor vote to support this proposed measure if it ever reaches the WA.

OOC: Reason for being so, is because the act is far too restrictive, where there are open windows for progressivism in this field. They are as follows:

1. All abortions should be legal and safely provided for and performed at the leisure of the pregnant subject.
a. This includes subjects underage
b. This applies even when there is no evidence that the pregnancy is causing mental or physical harm to the subject
c. No medical professional should believe it is his/her right NOT to perform an abortion due to "religious reasons"

Also, there are even greater avenues for medical professional ethics and workstandards that can be clarified for member nations here in this proposal concerning abortion. Such as:

A. the proposal can state a clear seperation of religion and medicine that requires that ALL requested abortions MUST be performed by selected medical professionals WITHOUT fail and WITHOUT said professionals being given the "right" to back out of an abortion operation.

B. and, again, to clarify that medical proffesionals must comply with an order to an abortion, without prior study, and at the pure leisure and demand of the pregnant subject.

I realised that some legislation is needed surrounding abortion.

THE ABORTION ACT

Recognising that some pregnant women, in some circumstances, wish to terminate their pregnancy for various reasons.

Realising that the illegality of such practices would only make them practiced illegally, and dangerously.

Realising that a lack of legislation surrounding such practices could be dangerous, and could lead to amoral destruction of unborn children.

Further recognising that there are moral and ethical reasons surrounding this issue.

Aiming to protect the human rights of both unborn babies and pregnant women.

Defines induced abortion as the deliberate removal of an embryo or foetus from the uterus.

Defining injury to a person’s health as damage to the well-being of an individual, either mentally or physically.

Hereby declares

1) Induced Abortion is to be made legal in all member states, in the following circumstances only:

i) To save the life of the pregnant woman.
ii) Under 24 weeks to avoid injury to the physical or mental health of the woman or of the existing child(ren).
iii) Under 24 weeks if the unborn child(ren) is/are a result of a sexual assault upon the mother.

2)The choice to ask for an induced abortion from the relevant medical authorities of the state is to be taken by the pregnant woman alone, and cannot be decided for her by family members or any other persons. The decision should be made by a parent or guardian if the pregnant person is under the age of consent decided by the member nation.

3) Medical staff of member nations are not obliged to perform abortion related procedure if they are forbidden to do so for religious reasons, or if they hold strong moral objections to it.

4) It must be decided by at least two trained medical professionals that the abortive procedure is legal within the limitations laid out in Section 1 of this Act.

5) Abortions performed by persons who are not either a qualified doctor or a qualified nurse are illegal.

6) Abortions performed after 24 weeks are illegal, accept if the abortion is for the reason given in subsection i) of Section 1 of this Act.


Any suggestions are welcome, this is my first attempt at making a WA resolution.

I think I understand with your aims and I disagree with them. I would strongly oppose your proposal, particularly as drafted.

Abortion should be allowed without restriction in the early stages of pregnancy and may be regulated but not banned prior to the point of viability. 24 weeks is an arbitrary timeline and the point of viability is a much better and more ethically relevant cut-off.

After the point of viability, abortion can be banned, but not in cases of a threat to the life or health of the mother, rape, incest, or severe fetal deformity.

Thus, I would change your first active clause to read:

1) Induced Abortion is to be made legal in all member states. Abortion may be made illegal after the point of viability of the unborn except under the following circumstances:

i) To save the life of the pregnant woman.
ii) To avoid injury to the physical or mental health of the woman or of the existing child(ren).
iii) If the unborn child(ren) is/are a result of a sexual assault upon the mother.
iv) If the unborn child(ren) is/are a result of incest.
v) If the unborn child(ren) suffer(s) from severe fetal deformity.

I fully understand you may consider the above to be the opposite of what you intended. Nonetheless, I submit it is a superior proposal.

EDIT: Also, to the extent you wish to ban abortion, that is ineffective, dangerous, and counter-productive. Banning abortion doesn't stop abortions. It merely forces women into unsafe abortions that kill tens of thousans of women every year in repressive states.

If you truly want to reduce abortions, the following would be much more effective and would not enslave or endanger women:

universal access to contraceptives
sharing of contraceptive technology
investiment in contraceptive technology -- seek to make it more effective, safer, usable by both (all?) genders
universal access to family planning
universal access to pre-natal, obstretic, and post-natal services
sharing of pre-natal, obstretic, and post-natal technology
investment in pre-natal, obstretic, post-natal technology
universal sex education (and sharing, investment, etc)
financial aid to remove economic reasons for abortion (i.e., remove economic barriers to childbirth)
education, awareness, prevention, and counseling programs to prevent rape and incest


Note: Anyone writing any proposal is free to use any of these ideas.

It was, is, and always will be the opinion of the United States of Philimbesi that the the subject of abortion is best handled at the national and not international level.

There are simply too many social, moral, economical, and legal facets to make a one size fits all blanket law.

We would oppose this.


Nigel S Youlkin
USoP WA Ambassador

The problem I have with this legislation is this:

6) Abortions performed after 24 weeks are illegal, accept if the abortion is for the reason given in subsection i) of Section 1 of this Act.

The Republic has three different species living within our borders. The gestation period of all three are wildly different. In one of our species, gestation is only fifteen weeks. How exactly does this protect their unborn? It makes abortion legal through the entire pregnancy. Another of our species has a two year gestation. Twenty four weeks is fairly early for them. That would give only a small window of time. Our third is somewhat on the normal human level, though it is eight months, not ten.

We agree with the ambassador from Philimbesi. This cannot easily be made into a one size fits all. Whether to allow abortion or not must be in the hands of the individual nations to decide.

Paula Jenner