This is a timeline of reproductive rights legislation, a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health. These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization, abortion, and contraception, and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).
17th century–19th century
End of 16th century – In England Sir Edward Coke formulated the "born alive rule" in common law, which holds that various criminal laws, such as homicide and assault, apply only to a child that is "born alive". 1765 – In England post-quickening abortion is no longer considered homicide in England, but William Blackstone confirms the "born alive rule" and calls it "a very heinous misdemeanor". 1778 – In Sweden, the first Infanticide Act granted mothers the right and the means for an anonymous birth. 1793 – In the French First Republic, Article 326 of the Code Civil legalized both anonymous and confidential births. 1803 – The United Kingdom enacted Lord Ellenborough's Act, making abortion after quickening a capital crime, and providing lesser penalties for the felony of abortion before quickening. 1810 – The 1810 Napoleonic Code of the First French Empire punished any person who procured an abortion with imprisonment. 1821 – A Connecticut law targeted apothecaries who sold "poisons" to women for the purpose of inducing an abortion. 1827 – An Illinois law prohibited the sale of drugs that could induce abortions. The law classed these medications as a "poison". The 1827 law was the first in the nation to impose criminal penalties in connection with abortion before quickening. 1827 – In New York State the first statute to criminalize abortion was enacted which made post-quickening abortions a felony and made pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor. 1842 – In Japan the Tokugawa shogunate banned induced abortion in Edo. The law did not affect the rest of the country. 1845 – New York passed a statute that said women who had abortions could be given a prison sentence of three months to a year. They were one of the few states at the time to have laws punishing women for procuring abortions. 1849 – In 1849, the Wisconsin state legislature passed a law that criminalized abortion, making it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion on a woman, no matter the circumstances of her pregnancy including pregnancy as a result of rape or incest, unless the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. 1854 – Texas passed an abortion law that made performing an abortion, except in the case of preserving the life of the mother, a criminal offense punishable by two to five years in prison. The law, found in Articles 4512.1 to 4512.4, had a proviso that anyone who provided medication or other means to assist in performing an abortion was an accomplice who could also be charged. 1856 – In Sweden, an amendment to the 1778 Infanticide Act restricted the right to give birth anonymously to a mere confidential birth. 1867 – Illinois passed a bill that made abortion and attempted abortion a criminal offense. 1869 – The Parliament of Canada unified criminal law in all provinces, banning abortion. 1870 – Illinois passed another law banning the sale of drugs that could cause induced abortions. The law is notable because it allowed an exception for "the written prescription of some well-known and respectable practicing physician". 1872 – New York state made it a penalty to perform an abortion, with a criminal sentence of between 4 and 20 years in prison. 1873 – The passage of the Comstock Act in the United States makes it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail, including contraceptive devices and information on contraception or abortion and how to obtain them. (see also advertisement of abortion services). 1820–1900 – In the United States, primarily through the efforts of physicians in the American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions were outlawed.