Our organization has expressed, together with 135 other NGOs worldwide, its written support for a draft law to provide additional means for pregnant women and other measures to fight abortion in Slovakia.
The main provisions of the draft law are:
- To change the legal wording from „pregnancy interruption” to „pregnancy termination”.
- To extend the already existing mandatory waiting period before an abortion from 48 to 96 hours, except when a woman’s health or life is at immediate risk.
- To require additional certification attesting health as grounds to obtain an abortion, when such is paid from public health insurance.
- To lower administrative requirements for state financial help after childbirth (up to now the child should be alive at least 28 days after his/her birth to be eligible for any subsidy).
- To provide women with more information on support they are entitled to obtain, from the state or charities, in an unplanned pregnancy.
- To increase state subsidies for women giving birth to a child with severe disabilities.
- To create social service programs for pregnant women victims of domestic violence, including accommodation for up to 3 years after giving birth.
- To introduce state financial support eligible after 4th month of pregnancy, to cover for increased expenses including healthcare needs.
- To ban advertisment on abortion services.
The support letter follows. Complete letter with all signatories can be downloaded here.
To honourable members of The National Council of the Slovak Republic
We, the undersigned NGOs, are writing to ask the Members of the Slovak Parliament to support the Draft Law which Amends and Supplements Act No. 576/2004 Coll. of Laws on Healthcare, Healthcare-related Services. [1]
Special protection of women before and after childbirth is part of many international and european treaties.
The protection of life, health and human dignity which this law aims at doing, is a principle vested in international human rights law, as well as multiple international and regional treaties.
Slovakia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990; the preamble of the Convention states the following: ‘[T]he child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.’
The unborn child is a living human being since the moment of conception. As stated by the European Court of Human Rights in Vo v. France, the unborn child ‘belongs to the human race.’[2] In this capacity, the unborn child is entitled to all human rights as the other members of the human family.
While the right to life is a fundamental human right, there is no right to abortion in international human rights law; in Europe, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights upheld this on numerous occasions. Furthermore, with regard to regulations in the area of access to abortion, the European Court of Human Rights has held that the ‘woman’s right to respect for her private life must be weighed against other competing rights and freedoms invoked including those of the unborn child.’ [3] This approach has been followed in a multitude of cases. [4]
The maintenance and strengthening of these safeguards, such as a waiting period, and advertising bans, are well within the realm of what is legal, on a domestic scale and certainly under international law. The extension of the waiting period allows for proper consideration and respect – not ‘demeaning women as competent-decision makers’, but rather giving them the necessary time and tools to discern upon a crucial decision to take.
For all these reasons, we strongly encourage the Members of the Slovak Parliament to vote in favour of the legislative proposal, thus upholding the dignity and the right to life of the unborn children, as well as the right of women to take an informed choice.
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[1]. Draft Law which Amends and Supplements Act No. 576/2004 Coll. of Laws on Healthcare, Healthcare-related Services, and on Amending and Supplementing Certain Acts as Amended, and which Amends and Supplements Certain Acts (Print no. 154, 19.06.2020)
[2]. Vo v. France, Application No. 53924/00, European Court of Human Rights Judgment of 08/07/2004 at § 84.
[3]. Tysiąc v. Poland, Application No. 5410/03, Judgment, 20 March 2007 at § 106 and Vo v France, (cited above) at §§ 76- 80 and § 82.
[4]. Brüggemann and Scheuten v. Germany, Application No. 6959/75, Commission decision 12 July 1977 at §§ 59, 61. See, A, B and C v. Ireland, Application No. 25579/05, Grand Chamber judgment of 16 December 2010 at §§ 222, 227