AllOfUs sends letter to Lithuanian authorities over draft bill on abortion
On 20 September, the Committe of Human Rights of the Seimas, the Lithuanian Parliament, revived discussion on a so-called “Law on the protection of a life in a pre-natal phase” also known as the “abortion ban bill”.
Currently, abortions in Lithuania are allowed up to the 12th week of pregnancy.This bill limits the right to terminate a pregnancy to two cases: if it poses an evident threat to life of a mother or if a if a pregnancy is the result of rape, making it more restrictive than the law of one of Lithuania’s neighbout, Poland, the law of which was also in the spotlight this year. If approved, the bill would also make a woman who terminates a pregnancy a murderer of an unborn children and abortion would be a criminal act punishable by up to three years in prison.
As a response to this preoccupying situation, the European Parliament platform #AllOfUs sent a letter addressed leading politicians of Lithuania’s government and parliament.
In the letter, they remind the government that laws banning abortion result in the “high prevalence of illegal abortions to which the women avail themselves in the absence of legal and safe options, thereby jeopardizing their health and life” and call on the Lithuanian government and the Parliament to bear in
mind international human rights standards.
The EHF wholeheartedly suppoorts this initiative.
Image Credit: ZeWrestler, Abortion protest poster at Frankfurt Women’s March.