A comparative study on abortion legislation in selected European countries

Abstract

The introduction will start the discussion on the concept of abortion, and introduce the main arguments surrounding abortion, being the right of life of the foetus vis-à-vis the right of choice of the woman. The introduction will also serve to set out the aim of this research project. Chapter 1 will focus on selected countries within the European Union (EU), analysing the respective legislation of each selected country. This will analyse whether abortion is legal upon request, illegal, or illegal with certain exceptions that might arise from social, criminal or medical grounds. This chapter will also enter into the merits of the time limits each country allows for an abortion to be permitted, and the necessary requirements for an abortion procedure to be procured. Chapter 2 will then focus on the countries that although European, are not member of the European Union following the procedure adopted in Chapter 1. Chapter 3 will then gather the information, which tend to be similar throughout Europe, confirming whether there is coherence in abortion legislation. The chapter will discuss whether EU countries, are required to adopt any EU-directives and other international legal instruments namely the European Convention on Human Rights. Chapter 4 will analyse the current Maltese legal situation concerning abortion including the legislation and other studies that have been carried out. This chapter will also include a research, carried out through an online questionnaire, to understand better the Maltese perspective on abortion and whether people tend to sway in favour of abortion if medical/social/criminal problems arise. This would help the reader realise that the Maltese tend to sway in favour of abortion whenever particular circumstances arise or concur. The conclusion will consider the outcome of the sample taken and compare it with the ideal legislation so that whenever the Maltese legislator decides to introduce abortion legislation, there would a better idea on what kind of legislation the Maltese prefer.