Article 55 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia guarantees the right to decide freely on the birth of children and is regulated more in detail by the Act on health measures in the exercise of the right to freely decide on the birth of children. The Act defines the right as a man's and a woman's free decision on childbirth and provides them the access to the necessary health care services to assist in the exercise of this right. And although it is a constitutional right in Slovenia, the right to freely decide on the birth of children is not concretely defined in any international human rights convention.
Some legal experts take a position on the right to decide freely about the birth of children in a relatively restrictive manner, limiting the understanding and scope of the right to the definition in paragraph 5 Article 16(1) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, while others conceive of the right more broadly, as encompassing several human rights that are already recognised in national laws, international human rights instruments and other relevant United Nations documents. Regardless of the understanding, the right itself remains undefined at the international level, which is why states often violate it by claiming that they are not bound by international law in this area. One of the more topical cases we have witnessed is the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, which reversed the precedent of Roe v. Wade and, hence, threatened the possibility of safe abortion as well as the use of contraception, the process of assisted reproductive technology, and women's health care in the USA. Restrictions and violations of the right to decide freely about the birth of children also occur in Slovenia and in neighbouring countries. This is often due to the prevailing political beliefs of the ruling parties, as well as the objections of doctors, which in turn restrict access to abortion.
|
