Yesterday, on October 11, Slovakia rejected an anti-abortion bill proposed by Ordinary People, the senior party in the coalition government. The bill was rejected by one vote, with 67 of the present 134 lawmakers (out of 150 members of the Parliament) voting in favor of it.

Among changes the bill was to introduce a prolongation of the obligatory waiting period from 48 hours to 96 hours, a ban on public provision of information on abortion,

The bill was controversial from the start, bringing numerous protesters to the streets. The international community has also openly condemned the proposal, with an open letter issued by the European Commissioner for Human Rights and an open letter to Slovak parliamentarians endorsed by tens of civil society organisations, including ASTRA Network.

The rejected bill came came after several failed attempts to restrict access to abortion in Slovakia. We wrote about disturbing anti-abortion bills presented to the Slovak Parliament back in June 2021 and October 2020.