[1][2] Abortion on demand is available for women whose pregnancies have not exceeded the tenth week, and in the case of risk to life or health of woman (no limit specified), or when the pregnancy has resulted from a sex offence (including rape or incest), or in case of fetal impairment up to twenty weeks.
[5] Although abortions performed after ten weeks must be done only if there is a specific approved reason, in practice, elective abortions are provided later than the legal limit – women often obtain fake medical documentation, such as a note from a psychiatrist stating that they are mentally unstable.
[5] Until recently, abortion was a leading method of birth control in what is now the country of Serbia.
Lack of sex education, coupled with little to no knowledge of contraception methods led to many unwanted pregnancies, and with them, a high number of terminations.
[1] In the 1970s and 1980s, approximately 12 percent of sexually active women in Serbia used modern contraception such as condoms.