Abortion in Kyrgyzstan is legal up to 12 weeks in normal cases. This can be extended to 22 weeks for "social reasons" as agreed upon by a health professional. In cases of medical necessity, abortion is legal at any time.[1] However, a majority ofKyrgyzstan's population is opposed to abortion due to it being consideredHaram under Islamic law.[2][3]
As a member state of theSoviet Union,Stalin's law criminalizing abortion was repealed in 1955 and was replaced with a new law that was designed "to encourage motherhood and protect infancy."[4] The decree implied that a majority of women would still seek to have children, and theSoviet government still sought to prevent abortion as much as possible.[5]
There is no exact data on how the re-legalization of abortion in the Soviet Union directly affected theKirghiz SSR, it is fair to assume that it was similar to the rest of thecentral Asian republics: most of them denouncing abortion due to it being incomparable withIslamic belief.[6] The Kirghiz SSR was predominantly Muslim,[7] which considers abortion asHaram.[3][8]
Since thedissolution of the Soviet Union, the rate of abortion in Kyrgyzstan has declined 66%, decreasing from 90 abortions per 1,000 women in 1990 to just 31 as of 2021.[9] The country is a member of the Organization of Islamic Conferences, and is one of the few members to allow unrestricted abortion.[10] 2015 research by the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic put the figure of abortions per 1,000 births at 140.6.[11]
While abortion is legal in Kyrgyzstan, due to the prevalence ofMuslims in the country, many doctors have expressed concern about performing such operations. One female doctor inOsh told a researcher with theUniversity of Minnesota said that she no longer counsels women about abortion options, nor does she perform them as "she now feels afraid to do so."[12] Most women face social pressure to not get an abortion, due to the rising influence of Islam in the country.[13][14]
Abortion is not mentioned inKyrgyzstan's constitution, although it does state that women and men will have "equal rights and freedoms and equal opportunities for their realization."[15]
The official law on abortion, called the Law on Reproductive Rights of Citizens, legalizes abortion on a number of cases. It states in part that technology must be developed to help protect reproductive rights, and that abortion should be provided in the event that a woman wishes to terminate her pregnancy.[16]
According to theUnited Nations, abortion is legal in Kyrgyzstan in cases of saving a women's life, saving her physical health, and saving her mental health. The same report states that the rate of abortion in Kyrgyzstan per 1,000 women is 12.4 as of 2011. A majority of the population, however,views abortion as immoral.[2] Kyrgyzstan is aMuslim-majority country, and thus the social ideas of the population are shaped by the religion.[17]
Abortion in Asia | |
|---|---|
| Sovereign states |
|
| States with limited recognition | |
| Dependencies and other territories | |
