REQUEST FOR WITHDRAW
of the Draft Law on Termination of Pregnancy from Civil Society
1. Draft law infringes on fundamental rights and therefore is a complex and extensive law and may not be adopted in a short procedure.
2. The draft law on termination of pregnancy terminates/deleted previous provision of free choice of a woman to terminate a pregnancy up to 10 weeks by introducing restrictive mechanisms that are not based on scientific knowledge and medicine-based evidence nor are in accordance with current medical guidelines for termination of pregnancy defined by the World Health Organization. Specifically the following provisions are inconsistence with the international standards:
• Submission of a written request by the woman to terminate the pregnancy,
• Requesting written consent for the intervention by the woman,
• Mandatory pre-abortion counseling,
• Mandatory notification of a spouse,
• Providing a period of 3 days for counseling (waiting period), prior to the performing the intervention,
• Submission of a certificate from a specialist gynecologist, including ultrasonography to confirm the gestational age .
The provisions in Article 6 of the draft law on pregnancy termination request within 10 weeks of pregnancy are contrary to Article 2 of the draft law which stipulates that for the termination of pregnancy woman freely decides and is a violation of the Constitution and guaranteed freedoms and rights by the international treaties ratified by the Republic of Macedonia.
3. The provisions of the draft law establish a new jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, and in particularly prescribe discretionary rights for the minister which will make decisions about:
• preparing the format for a written request for abortion
• establish regulations for counseling and clinical protocols
• Establishment of first-committees in health care institutions
This violates the autonomy and degrades the ability/capacity of health facilities required to perform termination of pregnancy especially since the draft law is defined as a medical intervention and that expertise should lie in the professional staff and facilities, and the medical profession (MCM) .
The establishment of the Commission will further bureaucratic procedure for women who applied and indirectly minister will be in the role of decision-maker whether the request of the woman will be approved or not.
4. High fines and introducing a measure for imprisonment doctors who do not comply with the provisions of the draft law even for procedures that are not life-threatening (recordkeeping, reporting partner) does not correspond to the performance penalties of other medical interventions, and further undermines the dignity of the profession and doctors.