TL;DR: Comparing raw week-numbers is only useful within the same legal and cultural framework. Comparing European and US limits on weeks alone feels pretty misleading because of that.

>The GP may be surprised to learn, however, that on the subject of elective abortions, presumed socially liberal European countries like Denmark (12 weeks) or France (14 weeks) are closer to socially conservative states like Georgia (6 weeks) or South Carolina (20 weeks) than socially liberal states like Massachusetts (24 weeks) or Oregon (no limit). And of course, globally, fewer than half of all countries allow elective abortions at all.

Commenting just on this part, as it's something that really has to be pointed out.

This is a common talking point certain political groups use, but only true on the absolute surface-level - if you look deeper, it becomes clear that it's not that simple.

I know the german legislation the best, so that's what I'll talk about.

The first and most important thing is that you have to see those rules within the larger context of the system they are used in. In germany, visiting your gynocologist every 3 months is pretty normal for people in the relevant age group. There is typically no hesitation in regards to healthcare. Birth control is available from a very young age (because teens tend to mess around with each other).

Then, there's excellent mandatory sex-ed. Much less poverty and overall better median education level. If you get a child, you'll get a significant amount of money from the government every single month until it's 18 or 25.

Healthcare isn't an issue even if you're unemployed. Also, there is no major stigma associated with abortion, making it much more effectively accessible and possible to actually be talked about.

As a result, teen pregnancies are much, much more rare. Generally, there is no abstinence-only bullshit being taught, resulting in teens able to properly decide for themselves. And, importantly, sex-ed is done _before_ puberty, which is absolutely crucial. You want them to be informed before their hormones go batshit crazy.

Because of those points, abortions are generally much more rare, as there's much less undesired pregnancies happening in the first place.

Then, to the general rules: The normal limit is 12 weeks/84 days post-conception. In certain cases up to 24 weeks. If there's serious danger for the mother, it's unlimited. Every hospital does abortions, there aren't any stigmatization-inducing special facilities for this.

Much of that doesn't look far away from the rules in the liberal US states.

The one exception: There is a mandatory counceling session (free of course) you have to do before a non-emergency abortion. After that, you need to wait 3 days. Then it can go on. The idea behind this is to make sure the situation is properly understood and to show ideas how the situation could be resolved differently (for example ways of financial support if finances would be the main reason for abortion, etc). All this in a neutral way, you aren't being guided towards a certain outcome.

A significant amount of people consider this to be over-the-top and infantilizing women - and I certainly see the reasoning. Personally, I haven't experienced this myself, so I can't really have much of an opinion on it.

As far as I know, the situation in france and UK are somewhat similar. Maybe somebody else can elaborate on the others.

Overall, this "abortion restrictive in europe" talking point is generally just that - a talking point, created to fool americans into thinking that the terrible healthcare related to abortion they have is actually super advanced.

It's not all about number limits. It's about healthcare and support. Limits in the US have to be much wider because it gets often spotted later and the alternatives are much worse.