On Saturday, people around the world fought for equality and women’s rights. However, hardly any topic divides society as much as the question of legalizing abortion. This division is also evident across Europe. While most countries allow abortions on request or for social reasons, states like Andorra, Malta, or Poland enforce extremely restrictive regulations.
Interestingly, the most restrictive laws are often found in small states with a strong Catholic influence, such as Liechtenstein or Monaco. At the same time, countries like Italy or Ireland demonstrate that a Catholic heritage does not necessarily mean strict abortion bans.
I assume the Vatican is probably also pretty restrictive.
It would be much more informative to include the gestational limits… Many are 12 but some go up to 24+
I thought UK being Yellow was wild, but apparently it’s true, because I’ve never heard of it being anything but legal. As long as you say having a baby might negatively impact your mental health you can get one, as the letter of the law is interpreted very liberally. Very glad the anti-abortion lobby is weak here, because they wouldn’t even have to change the law to restrict things heavily!
> Across the United Kingdom, abortion is permitted on the grounds of:
risk to the life of the pregnant woman;
preventing grave permanent injury to her physical or mental health;
risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family (up to a term limit of 24 weeks of gestation); or
substantial risk that, if the child were born, they would “suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped”.[3]
> The third ground is typically interpreted liberally with regards to mental health to create a de facto elective abortion service; 98% of the approximately quarter-million abortions performed in Great Britain are done so for that reason
This is interesting. why is the UK yellow? I think its 24 weeks in the UK which is a lot more than many EU countries?
Although that is indeed the law of the land in the UK, abortion is not a big deal – and the “health” can mean her mental health. All she has to say is she doesn’t want the child.
There have been cases where women were imprisoned for abortion, but that (I believe) is when they performed an illegal abortion – either too late or without medical assistance. There have also been cases where an abortion would not be performed because of other medical circumstances, but in general, abortion is freely accessible to any who wish it, and without any significant justification requirements.
The UK is technically true, but in reality you can get an abortion on request. As far as I’m aware, you just need to justify it in some way, even if your justification is essentially “I don’t want a baby because I don’t want one”.
context on romania:
from 1966 to 1989 abortions were illegal, with a few exceptions: life threatening for the mother, congenital diseases, rape/incest, the mother has at least 5 kids already and/or is over the age of 45.
all contraceptive measures were banned or almost impossible to get a hold of.
so women had to improvise for contraceptive measures and/or abortions, with sometimes deadly consequences…
all this because our “great leader” wanted to double the population fast so he could have a great big army, and a large workforce.
and women had to go through periodic mandatory gynecological exams to see if they were pregnant (or had been pregnant) so they could not hide their pregnancy from the gov.
that being said, due to the lack of contraceptives, the unwanted pregnancies was at an all time high, especially in the younger/teen women, and the led to some drastic measures sometimes, including but not limited to: using kneeting needles to kill the embrio, using coat hangers, or even inserting plants in the uterus, that would start to decay and lead to abortion through. but it is important to note that most of the times, these had horrible turnouts, most of the time leading to infertility or even death!
Another sad consequence of the banning of abortions was the huge number of abandoned babies. even though the communist state was doing all it could to track down the parent/parents, it seldom lead to finding them. this is the way that we had almost a record number of children in the care of the gov… and conditions were horrific! those kids were abused to an inch of their life, rape, beatings, prostitution were a normal…
I feel like this glosses over a lot of nuance. In Germany, for example, abortion is illegal except in life threatening situations, but is not punishable in the first 12 weeks. This also meant that until recently doctors couldn’t advertise that they carry out abortions – which wasn’t exactly ideal.
Obviously it’s still functionally able to be requested for the first 12 weeks, but I don’t think this is really captured by the “on request” categorisation here.
Poland is essentially a theocracy.
Somewhat misleading without gestational limits. If you include that you’d see that sevreral countries are just as restrictive if not more than most of the US states.
Abortion is illegal in France after 14 weeks. That’s much more restrictive than what Roe v Wade would have allowed in the US.
even the “on request” countries are much more restrictive than most states
What the fuck Lichtenstein? I thought you were cool.
you missed the isle of man, not allowed to have an abortion here either. check it out its fucked up
UK is essentially on demand up to 24 weeks it’s just just that you have to have a formal reason and confirmation from 2 doctors.
That reason can be that it would have a socio economic impact which takes into account wider considerations such as support network or housing and so on. Even those in a good socio economic position with a good support networks will find it very unlikely that they are refused in realilty though even on these grounds.
Other reasons can be mental or physical health of the person seeking the abortion, as above mental health can cover a wide area and be considered aside socio economic factors too.
And every single country shown here is more restrictive than numerous US states
As well as several US states being more restrictive than any country shownÂ
The US, as a single country, is more varied than all of Europe on this one.Â
Huh, I had no idea any EU countries had restrictions
Im surprised that have changed the name of abortion to something to make it sound less gruesome.
Ok, this is misleading and purposely misinformation.
In the Netherlands, abortion is technically illegal. The law is not enacted, but it’s not legal either.
In Italy we have many “conscientious objectors”.
This is a ridiculously manipulative way to present this data… obviously the most important metric is the weeks allowed in pregnancy before abortion is disallowed, in which case the vast majority of EU is far more restrictive than the vast majority of US states.Â
The law should never be a barrier to getting an abortion.
Hmm, “pregnant person” huh? There’s some other name for that…what is it…? I’ll give you a hint: they have two XX chromosomes and ovulate. Don’t remember what they’re called these days.
![Abortion Laws in Europe - The Differences [OC]](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/qpjrgn5eqvne1-1920x1024.png)
25 comments
**Article:** [**https://www.datapulse.de/en/abortion-laws-in-europe/**](https://www.datapulse.de/en/abortion-laws-in-europe/)Â
**Main data source:**[ **https://reproductiverights.org/**](https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/European-Abortion-Laws-A-Comparative-Overview-new-9-13-23.pdf)
**Data:** [Google Sheets](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nmDcp3ZqnTtS38AEshGKXBFF61LYrPYys0HY1UFrDus/edit?usp=sharing)
**Tool:** Adobe Illustrator
On Saturday, people around the world fought for equality and women’s rights. However, hardly any topic divides society as much as the question of legalizing abortion. This division is also evident across Europe. While most countries allow abortions on request or for social reasons, states like Andorra, Malta, or Poland enforce extremely restrictive regulations.
Interestingly, the most restrictive laws are often found in small states with a strong Catholic influence, such as Liechtenstein or Monaco. At the same time, countries like Italy or Ireland demonstrate that a Catholic heritage does not necessarily mean strict abortion bans.
I assume the Vatican is probably also pretty restrictive.
It would be much more informative to include the gestational limits… Many are 12 but some go up to 24+
I thought UK being Yellow was wild, but apparently it’s true, because I’ve never heard of it being anything but legal. As long as you say having a baby might negatively impact your mental health you can get one, as the letter of the law is interpreted very liberally. Very glad the anti-abortion lobby is weak here, because they wouldn’t even have to change the law to restrict things heavily!
> Across the United Kingdom, abortion is permitted on the grounds of:
risk to the life of the pregnant woman;
preventing grave permanent injury to her physical or mental health;
risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family (up to a term limit of 24 weeks of gestation); or
substantial risk that, if the child were born, they would “suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped”.[3]
> The third ground is typically interpreted liberally with regards to mental health to create a de facto elective abortion service; 98% of the approximately quarter-million abortions performed in Great Britain are done so for that reason
This is interesting. why is the UK yellow? I think its 24 weeks in the UK which is a lot more than many EU countries?
Although that is indeed the law of the land in the UK, abortion is not a big deal – and the “health” can mean her mental health. All she has to say is she doesn’t want the child.
There have been cases where women were imprisoned for abortion, but that (I believe) is when they performed an illegal abortion – either too late or without medical assistance. There have also been cases where an abortion would not be performed because of other medical circumstances, but in general, abortion is freely accessible to any who wish it, and without any significant justification requirements.
The UK is technically true, but in reality you can get an abortion on request. As far as I’m aware, you just need to justify it in some way, even if your justification is essentially “I don’t want a baby because I don’t want one”.
context on romania:
from 1966 to 1989 abortions were illegal, with a few exceptions: life threatening for the mother, congenital diseases, rape/incest, the mother has at least 5 kids already and/or is over the age of 45.
all contraceptive measures were banned or almost impossible to get a hold of.
so women had to improvise for contraceptive measures and/or abortions, with sometimes deadly consequences…
all this because our “great leader” wanted to double the population fast so he could have a great big army, and a large workforce.
and women had to go through periodic mandatory gynecological exams to see if they were pregnant (or had been pregnant) so they could not hide their pregnancy from the gov.
that being said, due to the lack of contraceptives, the unwanted pregnancies was at an all time high, especially in the younger/teen women, and the led to some drastic measures sometimes, including but not limited to: using kneeting needles to kill the embrio, using coat hangers, or even inserting plants in the uterus, that would start to decay and lead to abortion through. but it is important to note that most of the times, these had horrible turnouts, most of the time leading to infertility or even death!
Another sad consequence of the banning of abortions was the huge number of abandoned babies. even though the communist state was doing all it could to track down the parent/parents, it seldom lead to finding them. this is the way that we had almost a record number of children in the care of the gov… and conditions were horrific! those kids were abused to an inch of their life, rape, beatings, prostitution were a normal…
I feel like this glosses over a lot of nuance. In Germany, for example, abortion is illegal except in life threatening situations, but is not punishable in the first 12 weeks. This also meant that until recently doctors couldn’t advertise that they carry out abortions – which wasn’t exactly ideal.
Obviously it’s still functionally able to be requested for the first 12 weeks, but I don’t think this is really captured by the “on request” categorisation here.
Poland is essentially a theocracy.
Somewhat misleading without gestational limits. If you include that you’d see that sevreral countries are just as restrictive if not more than most of the US states.
Abortion is illegal in France after 14 weeks. That’s much more restrictive than what Roe v Wade would have allowed in the US.
even the “on request” countries are much more restrictive than most states
What the fuck Lichtenstein? I thought you were cool.
you missed the isle of man, not allowed to have an abortion here either. check it out its fucked up
UK is essentially on demand up to 24 weeks it’s just just that you have to have a formal reason and confirmation from 2 doctors.
That reason can be that it would have a socio economic impact which takes into account wider considerations such as support network or housing and so on. Even those in a good socio economic position with a good support networks will find it very unlikely that they are refused in realilty though even on these grounds.
Other reasons can be mental or physical health of the person seeking the abortion, as above mental health can cover a wide area and be considered aside socio economic factors too.
And every single country shown here is more restrictive than numerous US states
As well as several US states being more restrictive than any country shownÂ
The US, as a single country, is more varied than all of Europe on this one.Â
Huh, I had no idea any EU countries had restrictions
Im surprised that have changed the name of abortion to something to make it sound less gruesome.
Ok, this is misleading and purposely misinformation.
https://preview.redd.it/yoqi9gi4yvne1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d760a828a9093a4cd5624fa7ec037ea93adeb4e
This is the same page and checked right now
In the Netherlands, abortion is technically illegal. The law is not enacted, but it’s not legal either.
In Italy we have many “conscientious objectors”.
This is a ridiculously manipulative way to present this data… obviously the most important metric is the weeks allowed in pregnancy before abortion is disallowed, in which case the vast majority of EU is far more restrictive than the vast majority of US states.Â
The law should never be a barrier to getting an abortion.
Hmm, “pregnant person” huh? There’s some other name for that…what is it…? I’ll give you a hint: they have two XX chromosomes and ovulate. Don’t remember what they’re called these days.
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