‘We Have One of many Strictest Abortion Bans in Europe’ — World Points
CIVICUS discusses struggles for abortion rights in Liechtenstein with Gabriella Alvarez-Hummel, a journalist and reproductive rights activist who works with Fristenlösung für Liechtenstein, an organisation that campaigns for the introduction of a authorized time-limit abortion mannequin.
Liechtenstein just lately modernised its succession guidelines to permit feminine heirs to inherit the throne, a symbolic step ahead in a rustic the place girls solely received the fitting to vote in 1984. Ladies’s rights stay a reside political battleground. Civil society continues to marketing campaign for reform of one among Europe’s strictest abortion legal guidelines, however Prince-Regent Alois has the ability to veto legal guidelines and has vowed to dam any change. The conflict pits a citizen-led marketing campaign for ladies’s reproductive rights in opposition to monarchical energy.
What’s the present state of abortion rights in Liechtenstein?
Liechtenstein has one of many strictest abortion bans in Europe. Abortion is simply allowed in circumstances of rape or life-threatening circumstances. Consequently, girls journey overseas for abortions, normally to Austria or Switzerland. Since 2015, doing so is now not a felony offence underneath Liechtenstein regulation. However these looking for abortion care are solely on their very own. An data ban – the final of its sort in Europe – retains them from studying what their choices are and the place to go. Many don’t realise that for the reason that regulation modified in 2015, solely docs face felony legal responsibility, not sufferers. However the concern of authorized penalties persists regardless. The ban can be inherently stigmatising, and lots of internalise that stigma.
Ladies who journey overseas to get an abortion should pay for the process upfront, all whereas racing in opposition to the clock, as neighbouring nations solely permit remedy abortions as much as eight or 9 weeks of being pregnant and surgical abortions as much as 12 weeks.
As soon as overseas, the obstacles proceed, as a result of regardless of extra liberal legal guidelines, entry isn’t seamless in neighbouring nations. Within the Austrian province of Vorarlberg, solely a single clinic performs abortions. On the Swiss aspect, the regional hospital in Grabs, simply throughout the border, doesn’t carry out them. Most girls journey to Chur or St Gallen, a 45-minute drive if in case you have a automotive. Merely getting this data usually takes name after name.
What are girls’s rights teams doing to alter the regulation?
A preferred initiative is underneath manner that requires the decriminalisation of abortion as much as 12 weeks, repeal of the nationwide data ban and medical health insurance protection for the process.
We have now collected virtually 5,000 signatures, 5 instances the quantity required, equal to 1 / 4 of all eligible voters.
A parliamentary vote on the legalisation invoice is scheduled for two September, to be adopted by a preferred vote. Prince-Regent Alois should then signal the invoice into regulation, however he has already mentioned he received’t and can use his veto as an alternative.
How have activists responded to the veto menace?
The veto menace got here as no shock, provided that the Prince-Regent took the identical stance on the identical situation 15 years in the past. It needs to be famous, nonetheless, that he has historically proven restraint. He’s solely ever introduced he’d use his veto energy as soon as earlier than. That point, it sparked a year-long dialogue concerning the Prince-Regent’s veto rights earlier than over 75 per cent endorsed him in a public vote.
Whereas his veto energy does have democratic legitimacy, the timing is troubling. He made his announcement earlier than a single signature had been collected, representing a problematic interference within the democratic course of and public debate.
In the end, this pre-emptive strike backfired. As a substitute of deterring folks, it energised them, motivating a surge of volunteers whose dedication helped us safe a historic variety of signatures.
For now, we’re centered on the upcoming vote. A powerful, high-turnout victory would ship an plain message about what folks need, hopefully placing stress on the Prince-Regent to rethink. He can be utilizing his veto for the primary time, in opposition to girls’s rights of all issues.
What different obstacles stand in the best way of reform?
On high of the veto menace, the prime minister, who occurs to be the primary girl to carry the workplace, has publicly referred to as the initiative pointless, arguing that girls can merely cross the border for an abortion. That reveals how little she understands what these affected undergo.
With the nation’s two strongest folks opposed, the percentages look stacked in opposition to reform. But a latest ballot discovered that over 70 per cent help legalisation. The general public appears to be on the aspect of not criminalising anybody for having an abortion.
CIVICUS interviews a variety of civil society activists, consultants and leaders to collect various views on civil society motion and present points for publication on its CIVICUS Lens platform. The views expressed in interviews are the interviewees’ and don’t essentially mirror these of CIVICUS. Publication doesn’t indicate endorsement of interviewees or the organisations they signify.
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SEE ALSO
Gender rights: rollback and resistance CIVICUS | State of Civil Society Report 2026
Malta: ‘Younger folks see the worth in defending girls’s well being over implementing non secular doctrine’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Natalia Psaila Stabile 29.Could.2026
France: ‘The inclusion of the fitting to abortion within the structure is a real feminist victory’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Floriane Volt 17.Apr.2024
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