In recent years, many countries have made drastic improvements in their economies, technological advances, social equalization, education, health care and many other social issues. However, for centuries there have been economic and resulting technological divides between nations. In thousands of cities and villages across South America, many people live at least three miles from the nearest telephone. When the sun goes down, many larger cities are flocked with people from outlying smaller villages simply because they have no electricity by which to see in the darkness.
Most toilets have no seats, much of the water is undrinkable and in a city of over five thousand, you may find a single shop that offers a few outdated computers for public use. However, according to a recent study performed by NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League), every single nation in the world is home to at least one abortion clinic, be it legally or illegally run, despite the aforementioned lack of technology in most countries.
A quick look at the history of abortion shows that three factors are enerally considered the main contributions to a nation’s decision as a whole to legalize abortion. Obviously, when dealing with a personal decision to terminate a pregnancy or not, factors differ from person to person and situation to situation. However, when a nation decides to legalize any form of abortion, the three most common factors are: Overpopulation/low material standards of living, modernization/secularization and the political equality of women.
A structural-functional look at abortion might suggest that the legalization f abortion may be response to over-population and low material standards of living. A symbolic-interaction view of the issue might focus on a modernization theory of abortion, which states that as individuality and secularization is fostered in a given nation, that nation is more likely to legalize abortion. Finally, a social conflict analysis might produce a feminist theory regarding the issue – that is, where women have achieved greater equality in spheres of social life, abortion laws will be less restrictive.
The following research will show how each of these theories might be studied and whether or not each has sufficient merit. For each theory, two countries from each of the three national class systems have been chosen as representative of their class. That is, two examples from first world, second world and third world countries will be explored. To explore the structural-functional theory which states that abortion is a result of overpopulation and low material standards of living, infant mortality rate is a sufficient indicator of problems with both causes.
Third-world countries Mozambique and Angola lead the rest of the world in infant mortality rates, averaging 199 and 193. 82 deaths for every 1,000 babies born, respectively. Tajikistan and Azerbaijan have the highest infant mortality rates of all the second-world countries with 113. 43 and 82. 41 for every 1,000 babies born, respectively.
Finally, of the handful of first-world countries, Turkey and Hungary have the high infant mortality rate, with 44. and 8. 58 infant deaths to every 1,000 births. 3 If the structural-functional analysis which pinpoints overpopulation and low aterial living standards (both common causes of infant mortality) as primary causes of the legalization of abortion is correct, then it would not be a stretch to predict that the countries listed above as having the highest infant mortality rates within their socio-economical class would also offer legalized abortion.
This sociological theory regarding legalized abortion may very well prove true of lower income nations. However, it is evident that some of the more wealthy countries in the world also provide this service, if for no other reason than to offer uninhibited freedom and ndividuality to each person. A modernization theory on this subject might suggest that as societies become more tolerant and knowledgeable about the social structures within which they live, they begin to encourage individuality and secularization.
These factors can be adequately measured by the quality and amount of education offered in each country, which can in turn be indicated by the literacy rate of each country. According to nationsonline. org, all but three first-world countries have at least a ninety-five percent literacy rate. Of those that do, Czech Republic and Iceland both have a 99. 9% literacy rate. Of the second-world countries, Georgia and Bulgaria have the highest literacy rates at 99 and 98. 6%, respectively.
In the third-world countries, Samoa and Equatorial Guinea have the highest literacy rates with 99. 7 and 85. 7%, respectively. Analyzing and judging the truth of this theory is a bit easier than the other theories because of the controlled environment created by the surprisingly high percentages of literacy in the top of the third and second-world. The fact that one of our third-world xamples has almost one hundred percent literacy helps to mitigate any effects on the outcome of this particular research method produced by factors related to a low literacy rate.
To restate, this theory holds that as the education of a nation increases, individuality and secularization is encouraged, which in turn results in the legalization of abortion. This theory fails to call into account the effect of religious and social beliefs held by societies, which in some cases are predominant despite a government’s attempts to secularize a nation. On the contrary, many governments are linked very closely to the national religion and promote conservative lifestyles while still offering legal abortions.
In these cases, the structural-functional theory offers a much more likely reason. Finally, the third popular theory regarding the legalization of abortions is a feminist theory which suggests that abortion legalization occurs in nations with high regard for women. To measure the pro-feminism of nations, this study uses the percentage of females that hold national political office in a given nation. According to the UNECE, in 2000 there were low percentages of female national office holders in both first and second world countries.
UNECE offers no statistics for third world countries regarding this issue and the author was unable to find statistics for females holding office in third world countries (one might speculate that the sheer lack of female office-holders in third world countries is the reason for the lack of available statistics). In first world countries, Finland and Iceland lead the world in percentage of female national office olders, with 37% and 36. 51%, respectively. Croatia and Estonia lead the second world with 21. 85% and 17. 82%, respectively.
Analyzing this theory is difficult because of the lack of available statistics and the fluidity of the term “feminist”. Also, the small percentages offered for analysis may or may not demonstrate the fact that even the highest amounts of feminism in a culture are very low indeed. However, this theory does offer strong evidence in the fact that the link between feminism and legalization is very clear. I would be apt to predict that despite its shortcomings, this theory joins the structural functional theory as the most likely to produce positive results.
According to three sociological models, abortion is made legal in a nation depending on measurable factors. This article serves to highlight the sociological models, analyze the claims made and measure the pertinent statistics. If the structural-functional theory is correct, Mozambique, Angola, Tajikstan, Azerbaijan and Turkey would almost surely each offer legalized abortions. Hungary might not be as clear a case study for this theory due to its relatively low infant mortality rate.
As it turns out, the legalization laws in these countries vary tremendously, ranging from almost complete intolerance in Angola (only life-threatening pregnancies are terminated) to complete and unrestricted legalization in Hungary and a number of combinations of restrictions and tolerances in between (Tajikstan offers abortion in the first two trimesters for a handful of reasons and only allows it in the first trimester for social reasons). Contrary to my redictions, it appears from the samples I have taken that this model does not adequately explain why countries legalize abortions.
If the modernization theory holds true, then countries with high literacy rates in their respective socio-economic statuses would most likely offer abortion legally. Specifically, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Georgia, Bulgaria, Samoa and Equitorial Guinea would each have little restriction on abortion due to their extremely high literacy rates. With the exception of the third world countries, this seems to be the case. Although each of these countries puts restrictions on when and for what reasons one may terminate a pregnancy, they are all fairly lenient.
The third world countries each allow abortion, but the restrictions are less lenient than in the other countries. All in all, this sociological model seems to produce fairly consistent results. Finally, the feminist theory suggests that Finland, Iceland, Croatia and Estonia would each offer lenient abortion laws. As it turns out, Croatia and Estonia each offers completely unrestricted abortion aws, while Finland and Iceland each only specifies that there must be a good reason for abortion.
The evidence in favor of this sociological model via pseudo-logistic regression analysis is very strong, as all of the test cases have proven very lenient on abortion. 6 Each of these theories hold merit and perhaps the most accurate way to predict legalization is by analyzing a combination of the factors listed. However, for the study given, the feminization theory produces outstanding results and if this theory were further analyzed, would undoubtedly produce similar results.
