Abortion in the Northern Mariana Islands is illegal by law but legal by judicial ruling and legal review. A law passed in 1985 made abortion illegal, but a review by the Attorney General said it was legal in 1995. Women in the 1990s went to the Philippines to get abortions, but had to go to Japan or Hawaii by 2018 because of changing legality in the region.
Terminology
The abortion debate most commonly relates to the "induced abortion" of an embryo or fetus at some point in a pregnancy, which is also how the term is used in a legal sense. Some also use the term "elective abortion", which is used in relation to a claim to an unrestricted right of a woman to an abortion, whether or not she chooses to have one. The term elective abortion or voluntary abortion describes the interruption of pregnancy before viability at the request of the woman, but not for medical reasons. Anti-abortion advocates tend to use terms such as "unborn baby", "unborn child", or "pre-born child", and see the medical terms "embryo", "zygote", and "fetus" as dehumanizing. Both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are examples of terms labeled as political framing: they are terms which purposely try to define their philosophies in the best possible light, while by definition attempting to describe their opposition in the worst possible light. "Pro-choice" implies that the alternative viewpoint is "anti-choice", while "pro-life" implies the alternative viewpoint is "pro-death" or "anti-life". The Associated Press encourages journalists to use the terms "abortion rights" and "anti-abortion".
History
During the 1990s, women who needed abortions often traveled to the Philippines to get an abortion as there were no legal options in the Marianas. Women had few options to where they could get a legal abortion including Hawaii, or Japan women had few options to where they could get a legal abortion including Hawaii, or Japan.
Every person who shall unlawfully cause the miscarriage or premature delivery of a woman, with the intent to do so, shall be guilty of abortion and upon conviction thereof shall be imprisoned for a period of not more than five years.
This was reaffirmed with the Northern Marianas Constitution in Article 12's May 1986 supplement which said, "The abortion of the unborn child during the mother's pregnancy is prohibited by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, except as provided by law." This measure was adopted in 1985. It was still in place in 2018. In 2000, the law was debated after Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio asked the attorney general to review the constitutionality of the 1985 law, where having the discussion immediately met resistance from the Marianas' Roman Catholic majority.
As far as the woman herself is concerned, unless the abortion statute expressly makes her responsible, it is generally held, although the statute reads any "person", that she is not liable to any criminal prosecution, whether she solicits the act or performs it upon herself.
Tension has existed between Interpretations of U.S. federal law up against local Commonwealth law. However, a recent governor has asserted that until either U.S. federal or local Commonwealth courts state otherwise, or unless the Commonwealth government carves out any legal allowances, abortion remains illegal in all circumstances in the Commonwealth. In 1995, the Attorney General said that constitutionally, women have a legal right to an abortion. In practice, abortions to save the life of the mother or when pregnancy is the result of rape or incest occur without prosecution.
Financing
In 1998, the only reason an abortion would have been publicly funded is if it was a result of rape or incest, or if continuing the pregnancy would endanger the life of the woman. This policy had been in place since April 19, 1994, and related mostly to Medicaid funding.
