LEGAL REGULATION OF ARTIFICIAL TERMINATION: INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC EXPERIENCE

The article analyzes the legislative acts of a number of countries, which contain norms aimed at protecting human life, even before its actual birth. Attention is drawn to the fact that similar provisions are enshrined in some international acts. As a consequence, such legislative provisions are interpreted differently by scholars, some of whom try to absolutize the right to life and on this basis justify the unconditional right to birth and thus consider the prohibition of abortion as infringing on an inalienable natural subjective right. It is noted that the overwhelming majority of scholars proceed from the fact that this approach unreasonably restricts the reproductive rights of women who, at their own discretion, have the right to decide on the birth of a child and therefore have the right to resort to induced abortion. It is pointed out that this problem is solved differently in the legislation of different countries of the world: some of them practically prohibit artificial termination of pregnancy, others allow such an operation only in exceptional cases. It is proved that the consequence of such prohibitions is the spread of so-called «criminal abortions», which threaten the life and health of a woman, and in some cases lead to her death. It is noted that the vast majority of countries enshrine in their legislation the right of a woman to artificial termination of pregnancy (right to abortion), based on the fact that it is her natural and inalienable right. This is how this issue is resolved in the legislation of Ukraine, which finds its expression in the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Civil and Criminal Codes, the «Fundamentals of Legislation of Ukraine on Health Care», resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and orders of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. In support of the position of those countries that legislatively enshrine the right of women to abortion, numerous decisions of the European Court of Human Rights are cited, which uphold the right of women to reproductive choice and emphasize that the right to abortion does not contradict the human right to life. It is concluded that reproductive rights do not contradict natural human rights and it is noted that the state should not prohibit artificial termination of pregnancy by law, but should take appropriate preventive measures in order to reduce the number of abortions.