Erdman Joanna N
The MacBain Chair in Health Law and Policy at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Health Hum Rights. 2017 Jun;19(1):29-40.
The legal regulation of abortion by gestational age, or length of pregnancy, is a relatively undertheorized dimension of abortion and human rights. Yet struggles over time in abortion law, and its competing representations and meanings, are ultimately struggles over ethical and political values, authority and power, the very stakes that human rights on abortion engage. This article focuses on three struggles over time in abortion and human rights law: those related to morality, health, and justice. With respect to morality, the article concludes that collective faith and trust should be placed in the moral judgment of those most affected by the passage of time in pregnancy and by later abortion-pregnant women. With respect to health, abortion law as health regulation should be evidence-based to counter the stigma of later abortion, which leads to overregulation and access barriers. With respect to justice, in recognizing that there will always be a need for abortion services later in pregnancy, such services should be safe, legal, and accessible without hardship or risk. At the same time, justice must address the structural conditions of women's capacity to make timely decisions about abortion, and to access abortion services early in pregnancy.
根据孕周或怀孕时长对堕胎进行法律规制，是堕胎与人权领域中一个理论阐释相对不足的方面。然而，随着时间推移，围绕堕胎法展开的斗争，以及其相互冲突的表述和意义，归根结底是围绕伦理和政治价值观、权威与权力的斗争，而这些正是堕胎人权所涉及的关键利害关系。本文聚焦于堕胎与人权法随时间推移而展开的三场斗争：与道德、健康和正义相关的斗争。关于道德，本文的结论是，应集体信赖和信任那些受怀孕时间推移及后期堕胎影响最大的人——孕妇——的道德判断。关于健康，作为健康规制的堕胎法应以证据为基础，以消除后期堕胎的污名化，这种污名化导致过度规制和获取障碍。关于正义，鉴于认识到孕期后期始终需要堕胎服务，此类服务应安全、合法且易于获得，不会带来困难或风险。与此同时，正义必须解决影响女性及时做出堕胎决定以及在孕期早期获得堕胎服务能力的结构性条件问题。
