But doctors who refuse to perform an abortion procedure could still register with a register of opponents. This barrier to “denial of care” is present in many other European countries, Hickson points out. A new law in Texas, known as the Heartbeat Act, bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Experts say restricting women`s choices will also negatively affect their mental health. Abortions on demand during the first 12 weeks were promulgated by the GDR in 1972. West Germany followed in 1974, but the Federal Constitutional Court declared the law unconstitutional because it violated the right to life of the unborn child. A new law in 1976 allowed abortion only if the woman was physically or psychologically in danger; if the child is born with a severe disability; whether the pregnancy would cause serious social problems for the woman (e.g. poverty) or whether the pregnancy was the result of sexual violence. There were no abortions on request. The current rules, which grant the right to non-medical abortion upon request, were promulgated in 1993.

[Citation needed] MEPs expressed solidarity and support for women and girls in the United States, as well as those who defend both the right and access to legal and safe abortion care in such difficult circumstances. With that in mind, they are demanding that the U.S. Congress pass legislation that would protect abortion at the federal level. The abortion debate was brought back into the spotlight this week after it was reported that the U.S. Supreme Court was considering adopting the landmark Roe v. Wade who legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, according to a first draft of a majority opinion written by Judge Samuel Alito and obtained by POLITICO. In countries where abortion is illegal or restricted, it is common for women to travel to neighboring countries with more liberal laws. In 2007, it was estimated that more than 6,000 Irish women travelled to the UK each year for abortions. [9] However, the continent is also home to some of the strictest abortion laws in the world.

In Poland, for example, abortion is only allowed if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or if the woman`s life or health is in danger. In all 27 EU member states, abortion is completely illegal in Malta, while Poland has an almost complete ban. However, these two countries are outliers. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently said a national abortion ban could also be “possible” if SCOTUS overturns the decision. In Poland, however, the Constitutional Court revoked women`s right to terminate a pregnancy in 2020 and ruled that women can only have an abortion in cases of rape, incest or when their lives are in danger. She attributes the new law to an upsurge in women`s activism and the democratic socialist alliance that currently governs Spain. Access to abortion “follows very well the broader political momentum of a particular country,” she said. Malta is the only EU country to completely ban abortion, while Poland controversially imposed an almost total ban in 2020.

Hickson describes Hungary as one of many European countries whose abortion policies “impose many interconnected barriers that, in practice, make access much more difficult.” “The changes in laws that are actually [in force] are absolutely not like the laws of most European countries,” Mayall said. “They are very similar to what we see in the laws of the Global South, and in the countries where we work, where we see people who are active in prison because they have had an abortion, or we see dozens of women dying from unsafe abortions.” On 9th June MEPs adopted a resolution in which they confirmed the historic Case of Roe v. Wade. The U.S. Supreme Court`s June 24 decision to repeal national protections guaranteed for abortion rights allows any U.S. state to restrict or ban abortion. Read: The strictest restrictions on abortion are yet to come Doctors in Germany are prohibited by law from reporting on abortion procedures. This appears to be changing as the government coalition has agreed to move the issue forward, but the process will remain technically illegal. The argument that Europe generally has more restrictive abortion laws is misleading at best.

But by obscuring the water, the GOP apparatchiks hope to cushion the political consequences of Roe`s death, rejecting the observation that the new bans are both harsher than what preceded Roe and will require an incredibly invasive system of government surveillance, coercion, and punishment.