Talk:Timeline of reproductive rights legislation

New article
I've created this page as a sister-article to History of abortion. Someone put a lot of hard work into compiling this list. However, the article on HoA, is being expanded to include more material on the social contexts and the list as such takes up a lot of room in the article. While this material will be summarized in the article, I'd hate to see this all go to waste, so I created this page for it. I figured the expansion would create a timeline of greater value to WP. Although, upon reflection I recognize that some might not appreciate me broadening the context to reproductive rights.

But as such, the article could use more info pre-17th century, as well as info relating to contraceptives. Any comments? Phyesalis 01:50, 13 November 2007 (UTC)


 * So sorry about forgetting to remove the inuse tag - my bad, very bad. Thank you for removing it.Phyesalis (talk) 04:22, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

"Reproductive rights"
The term "reproductive rights" is often used as code for the support of legal abortion, an extremely contentious position. The introduction to this "timeline of reproductive rights legislation" should not assume a general acceptance of legal abortion as part of a a "subset of human rights," ergo my qualification in the opening sentence. Badmintonhist (talk) 15:47, 5 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Introducing the matter of supporters vs. opponents definitions without clarification just makes it sound more contentious and less clear, as if the definition was a minority view (which it is not).
 * This article is about laws relating to human reproductive rights. Hence human rights - rights claimed or asserted to apply to humans.  It is not about animal reproductive rights, it is not about plant reproductive rights, it is not about copyright and digital rights.  (All reasonable article topics and hence need to make clear which set of reproductive rights talking about.)  Whether somebody opposes or supports particular rights does not change that.  (In order to oppose something it is still well to define it.)
 * This article uses reproductive rights in a much more general way than as a code for abortion. I think the list of examples should make that clear.
 * There is nothing in the lead that says these are legal actions in support of reproductive rights, in fact many of the legal actions listed restrict or deny particular reproductive rights. The article does not  does not say that these rights are good (or bad), whether they should be supported or not, or whether they should or should not be protected.  It just delineates the set of rights involved.
 * Since the lead was unsourced I copied appropriate sources from the article on Reproductive rights, and expanded the list of examples. Does that help?
 * Perhaps if you could supply on the talk page another widely held definition of reproductive rights (with citation and indication that it is similarly widely held, of course) might help clarify the matter. Zodon (talk) 05:27, 6 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Nice try, but denoting any claim as a "right" essentially begs the question as to whether it should be legally supported. If you take a look at the Wiki article on "fetal rights," from the outset there are qualifications stating that this is how supporters understand the issue. The previous wording for this listing invited the reader to "buy into" the notion that legal abortion is pretty much a universally accepted proposition. It isn't, and encyclopedias are not supposed to be advocacy pamphlets. Badmintonhist (talk) 15:47, 6 September 2011 (UTC) PS: You are basically correct when you say that the listing isn't simply about expansions of "reproductive choice," however that observation invites us to question the title of the article. Shouldn't it be something like "Timeline of reproductive policy legislation."?


 * As far as the suggested title change - that seems like it may be broadening the topic even further. (This article already casts a prety broad net.)  Reproductive rights does give a reasonably concrete list of what is/isn't included.  And it is a name/concept used in this context.
 * I am not particularly familiar with the term "reproductive policy." What is reproductive policy?  How frequently is it used in this context compared to reproductive rights?   What is/is not included in reproductive policy vs. reproductive rights?  Zodon (talk) 21:04, 6 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Agree with Badmintonhist, on the grounds that the term "reproductive rights" is exclusively used by "pro-choice" activists. (In contrast, "gay rights" is used by both sides of that debate.)  Neutral terminology would be "abortion and contraception".  DanBishop (talk) 08:25, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Please see Talk:Reproductive_rights (didn't want to cross post) ArtifexMayhem (talk) 09:14, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

What to include in timeline
How strictly should this timeline adhere to the title/description of covering reproductive rights legislation? I just removed some items which are not legislation, or are only peripherally related.

e.g. Not legislation.
 * 1969–1973 – The Jane Collective operated in Chicago, offering illegal abortions.


 * 1969– Senator Robert Packwood of Oregon introduces legislation to legalize abortion in Washington D.C.; no action is taken. Proposed, but not enacted

Others, which I have left for the moment:
 * how is 1551 17th to 19th centery? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.154.71.69 (talk) 01:35, 29 January 2013 (UTC)


 * 1959– The American Law Institute drafts a model state abortion law to make legal abortions accessible.
 * 1968– President Lyndon Johnson’s Committee on The Status of Women releases a report calling for a repeal of all abortion laws. Propsal

Of course any legal action generally has antecedents, it is proposed, considered, drafted, argued, ... for some time before. I am not sure to what extent we should include such preparatory items. My general thought is that as long as we give a link to the main law/event/etc., that should suffice, since the article about that item should (hopefully) cover the antecedents. There might be a few cases where some particular model/event/advance triggers a bunch of legislative action, and therefore warrants inclusion.

Another item that I am not sure about is 1869 - Pope Pius IX. Is this legislation/legal action? A few centuries earlier the Papacy definitely had governmental/legislative type power. At that late date - were they still a government, or more of an NGO. Or does this qualify by being a tremendously important non-legislative event? (e.g. was this the first time Catholocism set a policy relating to abortion).


 * 1869 – Pope Pius IX declared that abortion under any circumstance was gravely immoral (mortal sin), and, that anyone who participated in an abortion in any material way had by virtue of that act excommunicated themselves (latae sententiae) from the Church. In the same year, the Parliament of Canada unifies criminal law in all provinces, banning abortion.

Zodon (talk) 07:39, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

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Soviet Union first country to legalize abortion
I read on this page that Mexico was the first country in the world to legalize abortion, sometime around 1930. But I don't think this is true. I believe that a whole ten years prior to this, in 1920, the Soviet Union became the first country (at least in Europe) to legalize abortion.

-John Jacobsen — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:602:9800:AB10:6DB9:C791:E3F:11FB (talk) 06:58, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

Child murder rights?
Came across this entry while researching for an article - someone went through and repeatedly changed "reproductive rights" and similar terms to "child murder/child murder rights." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fadedlyrics (talk • contribs) 06:49, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

"Firsts"?
I'm not quite sure how, for example, Mexico can be the first nation to legalize abortion in the cases of rape when those cases were already legal in the Soviet Union at the same time? The same is true with the other "firsts" on the timeline, which seems severely flawed as a result. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TorpedoFahrt (talk • contribs) 21:44, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Why isn't there a reference to Cuba? The Cuban government decriminalized abortion in 1965. — Preceding unsigned comment added by J.L.G. Perez (talk • contribs) 08:50, 30 December 2020 (UTC)