Dr. Ronald Johnson:

We have looked at gestational limits in our policies database and found that across the world, they range from eight weeks - and in this particular country, it is eight weeks to save the woman's life - up to no limit and everything one can imagine in between. If one looks at the database, one sees that in some instances, the numbers are ad hocor arbitrary. I do not know why particular limits are set. It may have to do with trimesters of abortion. A lot of countries settle at around 12 weeks for on-request abortion but there is a group of countries at 14 weeks, another group at 18 weeks and then some are at 24 weeks. There are four countries with no limits.

The other point about gestational limits is that they vary by country for different legal grounds. There are gestational limits for abortion on request, without specification of reason. About 92% of countries have gestational limits that have abortion on request. When it comes to health, about 37% of countries have limits, with the rest having no limit. When it comes to life, about 20% have a limit, with the rest having no limit. Again, one must anticipate that whatever limit one sets, some woman will need an abortion who will be beyond that limit and one must ask oneself what that woman is going to do.