You have the right to freely decide whether to preserve or terminate your pregnancy. This choice is part of your human right to a private life.
Termination of pregnancy & Private life
Your right to a private and family life encompasses the right to the free choice of whether to become a parent. You have the right to freely decide about the termination of a pregnancy (abortion) or sterilisation if you do not wish to give birth to, or conceive, a child.
example You may wish to terminate a pregnancy resulting from rape.
Read more about the choice to become a parent or not.
Read more about pregnancy and child birth.
Information & Access to an abortion procedure
Being properly informed in a timely manner about the abortion procedure, its risks and impact to your health, as well as access to, and the availability of, the necessary medical treatment is also part of the human right to health.
The possibility of having an abortion is limited in time, therefore, the time factor is of critical importance. The necessary medical tests should be conducted in a timely manner so that you can decide whether to terminate your pregnancy without delay. After receiving the necessary test results, the abortion procedure should be carried out, if you so wish, forthwith.
example Access to relevant information on the mother’s and foetus’ health should not be delayed, especially if such information indicates a malformation of the foetus, and may be decisive in choosing whether to continue the pregnancy.
example The abortion procedure should be carried out without delay, to limit and prevent damage to the mother’s health which may be occasioned by a late abortion.
Read more about access to information about reproductive health and access to reproductive health care.
Abortion procedure
There may be different reasons for deciding on an abortion. You may not wish to become a parent at a particular time or have a child with a particular person. Negative medical indications for you, or for the foetus’ health, or a pregnancy caused by rape, may be reasons for termination. Before an abortion procedure, you will be asked to fill out a statement confirming that you have taken an informed decision to do so.
There are no prohibitions on terminating a pregnancy in Slovenia. However, your right to decide on the termination of a pregnancy has certain restrictions, such as the time period for carrying out the procedure, which are set out in the Health Measures in Exercising Freedom of Choice in Childbearing Act.
example An abortion can only be carried out until the 11th week of pregnancy. In case of medical indications, termination of pregnancy lasting more than ten weeks may be performed at the request of the pregnant woman only if the risk to the life and health of the pregnant woman and her future potential motherhood is lesser than the risk to the pregnant woman or child due to continued pregnancy and childbirth.
Pregnancy of a minor & Abortion
If you are a minor, the doctor must usually inform your parents or legal guardian about the fact of your pregnancy and the abortion. But the decision to have an abortion is fully yours.
What human rights violation may there be?
Your right to health may have been violated if you are denied an abortion procedure even though the legal requirements have been met. This may also lead to a violation of your right to a private life since aspects of your reproductive health are closely linked to your private life.
If you have been denied access to information about your, and your expected baby’s health, or you have not been correctly and properly informed in a timely manner, this may have negatively affected your private life and thus led to a violation of your right to a private life. Your right to a private life may also have been violated if you need to terminate your pregnancy due to medical negligence by doctors.
example Your right to a private life may have been violated if you only decided to terminate your pregnancy due to contradictory and/or misleading information about a genetic disorder in the foetus.
example Your right to a private life may have been violated if a doctor carried out a medical act on you intended for another person due to a mix-up at the hospital and as a result of this error, you were obliged to undergo an abortion, despite the previously determined good state of your, and the expected baby’s health.
If an abortion procedure is denied only because you belong to a group with certain characteristics associated with your race, origin, religious beliefs, political affiliation, sexual orientation or other similar grounds, it may violate the prohibition on discrimination and unequal treatment.
Read more about medical negligence and how to complain where your rights have been violated.