Liechtenstein parliament votes to decriminalize abortion, but hereditary prince refuses to sign
Lawmakers in the principality voted 13-12 to decriminalize abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, but Hereditary Prince Alois, the acting head of state, has said he will not sign the change into law, citing the protection of life
The parliament of Liechtenstein voted 13-12 on September 2 to approve a measure allowing abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy. Hereditary Prince Alois, the acting head of state, has said he will not sign any change in the law that he considers contrary to the protection of life.
The proposal reached the Landtag, the principality's parliament, backed by 4,970 signatures, close to a quarter of the electorate and far more than the 1,000 needed to bring forward a popular initiative. Parliament voted by the same 13-12 margin against putting the measure to a referendum, so the final decision now rests with the hereditary prince.
What the initiative would do
The text would decriminalize abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, remove the ban on providing information about the procedure and ensure the costs are covered by health insurance. Under the law currently in force in the principality, doctors who perform an abortion face up to three years in prison, except in specified cases: grave danger to the life or health of the mother, or rape.
The deadline and the prince's position
Alois, who has headed the state since 2004 after his father, Prince Hans-Adam II, delegated the role to him, has six months to sign the measure. If he does not do so before March 2027, the proposal will be rejected automatically. He had already set out his position in an interview with the newspaper Liechtensteiner Vaterland, saying he would not support a general legal framework for abortion in the early weeks of pregnancy and citing the "central legal good of the protection of life."
This is not the first time Liechtenstein has faced this debate. In 2011, a similar initiative went to a referendum and was rejected by 52.3 percent of voters. Alois had announced then too that he was prepared to use his constitutional powers to keep it from taking effect, even if voters approved it.
The Catholic Church's position
The Catholic Church took part in the debate before the vote. On August 21, Benno Elbs, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Vaduz, recalled the Church's teaching on the protection of human life from its beginning. "The unborn child possesses an intrinsic and inalienable dignity from the very beginning and therefore deserves the same protection granted to every human life," Elbs said.
Elbs also pointed to a particular feature of the principality: it has no maternity unit, so women must cross the border to give birth. He questioned how allowing abortion inside the country fits with women having to travel to neighboring countries for obstetric care. He ended by calling for a response that protects the child and supports families in difficulty.
