Abortion in Europe

Abortion in Europe varies considerably between countries and territories due to differing national laws and policies on its legality, availability of the procedure, and alternative forms of support for pregnant women and their families.

[3] The European Court of Human Rights, summarising its abortion-related case law, in the Vo v France ruling in 2004, noted the "diversity of views on the point at which life begins, of legal cultures and of national standards of protection" and therefore, in a European context, the nation-state "has been left with considerable discretion in the matter.

Debates around abortion, pregnancy and the beginning of life were common in Greek and Roman philosophy and medicine, and would have also been known in cultures which have not left a written record.

The medical writer Soranus of Ephesus wrote in the early 2nd century AD:[6] A contraceptive differs from an abortive, for the first does not let conception take place, while the latter destroys what has been conceived ...

[7][8][9] A fragment attributed to the poet Lysias "suggests that abortion was a crime in Athens against the husband, if his wife was pregnant when he died, since his unborn child could have claimed the estate.

John Calvin, for example, wrote:[17] The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy.The bishops of the Anglican Communion expressed opposition to abortion at the 1930 Lambeth Conference.

The author of Sahih al-Bukhari (Book of Hadith) writes that the unborn child is believed to become a living soul after 120 days of gestation.

[25] Under eugenics laws in Nazi Germany, abortion was severely punished for women considered to be Aryan (racially superior).

[38] The Parliament of Norway (Storting) legislated in 2015 that an unborn child is presumed to be viable at 21 weeks and 6 days unless there are specific reasons otherwise.

The same policy was enacted in West Germany in 1974 but was ruled unconstitutional in 1975 by the Federal Constitutional Court as it infringed on the right to life of the unborn child.

This obligation was balanced with the rights of the mother – therefore permitting abortion in certain circumstances – although with the protection of fetal life, in principle, taking precedence.

[51] King Baudouin's letter on the issue, to his then Prime Minister, Wilfried Martens, is displayed in the BELvue Museum in Brussels.

The law on abortion changed significantly to a very liberal policy in Ireland when, in 2018, the Eighth Amendment was repealed by a subsequent referendum.

Abortion in Northern Ireland was liberalised in 2019 and 2020, from being permitted in cases of "risk of real and serious adverse effect on ... physical or mental health, which is either long term or permanent" to being available on request up to 12 weeks and on further grounds later in pregnancy.

[53] In March 2024, France became the first country to excplicitly include the right to abortion in the Constitution influenced by the overturning of Roe v. Wade ruling in the US in 2022.

[56] An elective abortion before the term limit may, in some cases, be carried out on request without a medical indication by the pregnant woman, or under certain conditions.

[125] The Akrotiri and Dhekelia Sovereign Base Areas of the United Kingdom on the island of Cyprus reflect the Abortion Act 1967 in policy with grounds allowing for aboriton in cases of risk to the life of the pregnant woman, grave permanent injury to her physical or mental health, risk of injury to her physical or mental health (or that of any existing children of the family) and disability in the unborn child; the law was codified in a military ordinance in 1974.

In Guernsey, abortion is permitted at any stage for an immediate risk to life, to prevent grave permanent injury, and on disability grounds.

For example, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are internationally recognised as part of Georgia whereas Transnistria has de facto been separated from Moldova.

Social policy in these states may reflect laws introduced under a previous jurisdiction or by a protecting power which guarantees the security of the territory.