Abortion law in Europe: The promise and pitfalls of human rights and transnational trade law in the face of criminalization with exceptions

The fairly general consensus position on abortion law across Europe is that of partial decriminalization or, more accurately, criminalization with exceptions. Women in most European countries are able to access abortion, but currently there is no broad individual right to abortion on request. By contrast, abortion is generally a criminal offence. However, the law in each country offers various exceptions to that rule. The specific conditions of decriminalization and consequent access to lawful abortion vary substantially among European countries. These usually establish exceptions (rape, fetal abnormalities, risk to life or health of the woman, emergency/necessity) and other alternative requirements, such as a gestational term, mandatory counselling and waiting periods, parental and/or judicial consent in the case of minors, and limitations related to the type and number of healthcare professionals who need to be involved in the procedure. We show that this position is vulnerable to worrying indications that the direction of travel in Europe is away from liberalization, autonomy or human rights protection, and towards greater restrictions on women’s access to abortion. We consider possible legal and other strategies for women’s empowerment, including cross-border provision of abortion services in Europe.