Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 16/12/2025; Authors: Eva Gračanin, Nina Rozman
Jasna Podreka of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana explained that EU member states do not have uniform legal frameworks governing access to abortion, and that formal legality by no means guarantees real, practical access.
On 16 November Slovenian member of the European Parliament Matej Tonin said in the TV show Politično s Tanjo Gobec that “abortion is allowed in all 27 member states of the European Union.” He made the statement in response to the host’s question about whether he regretted urging fellow MEPs to vote against the My Voice, My Choice initiative.
My Voice, My Choice is a European citizens’ initiative led by the Slovenian non-governmental organisation 8 March Institute. Its organisers are calling on the European Union to introduce a financial mechanism to help member states ensure safe and accessible abortion. The fight for equality and women’s rights is just one of the areas the organisation is active in.
“Tonin’s claim could be challenged by pointing out that legally permitted abortion is often framed in law as an exception to a general prohibition of abortion,” social and political psychologist Marjeta Mencin told Razkrinkavanje.si. Mencin is the first signatory of the My Voice, My Choice initiative.
As she noted, this understanding of abortion is not merely indirect. German law, for example, still explicitly defines abortion as unlawful – although it does not punish it – except in cases where the pregnant woman’s life is endangered, provided certain additional and precisely defined conditions are met.
According to Mencin, the right to abortion is both legally and practically restricted in all EU countries. In many of them, access is so limited for various reasons that the procedure is effectively unavailable to most women. For them, the fact that abortion is legal is practically irrelevant. “It is precisely this fact – the inaccessibility of legally permitted abortion – that is the reason for the 8 March Institute initiative,” she said.
Jasna Podreka, a professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts, described the claim that abortion is allowed in all EU member states as misleading. “Such statements diminish the real experiences of women and overlook systemic and practical barriers that are very serious in many European countries and can significantly affect women’s health and life circumstances.”
In her view, Tonin’s claim ignores the fact that the formal legal regulation of abortion access across the EU’s 27 member states is not uniform, and that formal legality does not come close to guaranteeing the actual possibility of using this health service in practice.
Real accessibility in her opinion means that a woman can obtain an abortion in a timely, safe, non-discriminatory and financially affordable manner. “Most countries legally allow abortion, but the examples of Poland and Malta clearly show that legislation is not the same everywhere and that, in some countries, abortion is not even formally accessible under equal conditions.”
Under the current version of Poland’s Family Planning, Human Embryo Protection and Conditions for the Permissibility of Abortion Act, in force since 2021, abortion is allowed when the pregnant woman’s life or health is at risk. It is also permitted as an exception when there is a justified suspicion that the pregnancy resulted from a criminal offence, such as rape.
As the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality stated in a press release on 11 November 2021, in the first ten months of that year only 300 abortions had been performed in Polish hospitals on the grounds of risk to life or health.
Human Rights Watch, one of the leading independent human rights organisations, said in a report published on 14 September 2023 that at least six women had died in Poland since January 2021 because doctors did not terminate their pregnancies despite life- and health-threatening complications, even though this is a legally permissible ground for abortion under Polish law.
An amendment to Malta’s Criminal Code, in force since 2023, provides that abortion is allowed when performed with the aim of saving the pregnant woman’s life and protecting her health. It is also permitted if the woman suffers from a medical complication that may directly endanger her life or health and lead to death. The procedure must be approved by three doctors.
The authors of a 2023 paper published in the peer-reviewed journal BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health explained that options for terminating an unwanted pregnancy have always been limited for women in Malta. In the past, Maltese women seeking an abortion either travelled to a country where the procedure was legal or carried the pregnancy to term. It was however not common for pregnancies to be terminated illegally and in secret.
According to data released by the Maltese voluntary organisation Doctors for Choice Malta, a partner of the international organisation of the same name, Malta has no official abortion statistics. Despite the lack of official data, the authors cite an unofficial estimate that at least 300 women with permanent residence in Malta terminate a pregnancy each year.
Under Malta’s Criminal Code, anyone who causes a woman to miscarry by food, drink, medication, violence or any other means, regardless of whether she consented, faces a prison sentence of 18 months to three years. The same penalty applies to a woman who terminates her own pregnancy or consents to the use of means to do so.
A doctor, surgeon, obstetrician or pharmacist who knowingly prescribes or uses means to induce an abortion faces a prison sentence of 18 months to four years, and a permanent ban on practising their profession.
Legal on paper, obstructed in practice
According to a report on access to abortion in Europe published this year by the global non-profit Amnesty International, one of the international organisations supporting the My Voice, My Choice initiative, abortion on demand is permitted in most EU countries, including Slovenia, provided the procedure is carried out before a specified week of pregnancy.
The Amnesty International report also notes that abortion across Europe is generally regulated in national criminal codes, but at different levels, and that not all such provisions negatively affect access.
As an example of legislation with a negative impact on access, the report’s footnotes cite Italy, where, according to a report by the U.S. news agency Associated Press, a law adopted in April last year allows groups “with appropriate experience in supporting motherhood” access to public counselling centres visited by women seeking advice when considering abortion.
Under German law, as also mentioned by Mencin, termination of pregnancy is not punishable if the woman requests it herself and declares to a doctor that she underwent counselling at least three days before the procedure. In addition, the abortion must be performed by a physician, and no more than 12 weeks may have passed since conception.
If these conditions are not met, the person who terminates the pregnancy faces a prison sentence of up to three years or a fine. If the act is committed by the pregnant woman, she may be punished with up to one year in prison or a fine. Attempted abortion is also a criminal offence, but pregnant women are not punished for an attempt.
In a summary of the report published on 6 November this year, Amnesty International Slovenia explained that, in addition to gestational limits and criminalisation, access to abortion is also hampered by high costs. This is particularly the case in countries where national health systems do not cover the procedure: in the EU, these include Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany and Latvia.
There are also many cases in which the procedure is refused on the grounds of conscientious objection. This is particularly widespread in Italy and Croatia. A paper on the excessive regulation of abortion care in Italy, published in September 2023 in The International Journal of Gynaecology & Obstetrics, cited Italian Ministry of Health data for 2020 showing that 64.6% of gynaecologists refused to perform abortions.
Some Croatian women get abortion in Slovenia. According to data provided to Oštro by the National Institute of Public Health on 29 September this year, 1,260 residents of Croatia had abortions in Slovenia between 2019 and 2024, accounting for 81.3% of all foreign women who terminated a pregnancy in Slovenia during that period.
Podreka also specifically highlighted the problem of conscientious objection: it appears in institutions that, by their very nature, should ensure equal treatment of all patients. This, she said, is the core of the issue: “In public healthcare, professionalism must prevail over personal morality. A right in practice is not a right if its realisation depends on the personal beliefs of an individual within the system.”
Matej Tonin explained to Razkrinkavanje.si that he had based his claim on the same information that the newsroom had collected and described in an email to him. “As of 2023, abortion is not prohibited in any EU member state. However, each country has its own system,” he said. He insisted that his statement was “accurate and true.”
The claim that abortion is allowed in all 27 EU member states is manipulative. Termination of pregnancy is legally permitted in many EU countries, but in practice access to the procedure is often restricted by various factors, in some countries to such an extent that it is in effect unavailable to most women.
