where a country has legalized abortion on request, prohibited it, and legalized it again (e.g., former soviet union, romania), only the later year is included. countries that result from the merger of states where abortion on request was legal at the moment of unification show the year when it became legal across the whole national territory (e.g., germany, vietnam). similarly, countries where not all subnational jurisdictions have legalized abortion on request are not included (e.g., leading to the exclusion of australia, mexico, the united kingdom and the united states). countries are counted even if they were not yet independent at the time. the year refers to when the relevant law or judicial decision came into force, which may be different from the year when it was approved.