General Information On SRHR In Slovakia

• Author: Pietruchova, Olga
• Pages: 7-10

Access to abortion services for women in the EU - Slovakia

PE 659.922 7

GENERAL INFORMATION ON SRHR IN SLOVAKIA

Abortion debate started in Slovakia after the adoption and ratification of the Concordat with the Holy

See (2000). During the two decades, several legal proposals have been discussed in the National

Parliament to restrict access to abortion and famil y planning methods.

1.1. Abortion and SRHR debate in Slovakia

In 2001, a group of conservative MPs filed a motion to the Constitution Court to examine the abortion

law. It was a reaction to the failed attempt to ban abortions in an ame ndment to the Slovak constitution

in 2001.

Article 15 of the Slovak constitution says that everyone has a right to live and that human life is worth

protecting even before birth. The abortion law, on the other hand, allows for abortions to be carried

out up to the 12th week of pregnancy.

The MPs who submitted the motion said that the act on abortions contradicts the sentence in the

Constitution that says that human life is worth protection even before birth. They argued that in

Slovakia, it is legal to perform abortions within the first three months without giving any reason.

In 2007, the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic held abortion on demand of a pregnant

woman in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy conforms with the right to life (including the cl ause

stating that human life is worthy of protection even before birth) as set out in the Constitution.3 Th e

court ruled that the procedure pro tects the foetus, as a woman must go through a tough procedure if

she wants an abortion, under the law: filing a request, receiving a medical examination, going through

an interview with a doctor, receiving a second approval of the decision, and paying for the surgery. The

time limit of 12 weeks is associated with the physiology of the d eveloping foetus.

The court gave woman’s right to reproductive self-determination a full and equal standing in the

constitutional order, using a balancing framework, according to which multiple constitutional rights

and values are vindicated, none completely overruling any other, and favouring compromised rather

than absolute regulation.4

Several attempts to restrict the access to abortion have been discussed in the National Parliament, since

the Constitutional Court ruling. A year after the verdict, a group of conservative MPs amended the Act

on Health Care introducing a waiting period and further restrictions (see below).

Initiatives to restrict sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women were not limited to

abortion purely but included, inter alia, ban to subsidy contraceptives by the public health insurance

companies, rejection of the introduction of the medical abortion in Slovakia as well as the refusal of

the adoption of the programme on SRHR. The adoption of such a comprehensive programme on

SRHR has been pending since 2007, even though rates of teenage pregnancy and infant mortality are

high and infection of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, is increasing. The religious and

conservative institutions and actors are strongly opposing the adoption of such a programme. None of

the Slovak governments was willing yet to risk a conflict with the Church. Consequently, no strategic

framework for the protection of the SRHR in the country exists.

In 2015, Slovakia presented its 5. and 6. periodic report to the Committee on the Elimination of

Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). During the constructive dialogue, the topic of SRHR has been

3 Constitution Court ruling 12/01

4 Adriana Lamačková: Women’s Rights in the Abortion Decision of the Slovak Constitutional Court.