Abortion laws in Europe - legal rollbacks and progress

Britain's lawmakers have voted to decriminalise abortion following concerns over a growing number of police investigations into women ending late pregnancies.

While abortion has been legal for almost 60 years, women in England and Wales can be prosecuted if they terminate a pregnancy after 24 weeks under an 1861 law that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Convictions are extremely rare, but prosecutions have increased since the COVID pandemic when the law was changed to allow women to take abortion pills at home in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Across Europe, the general trend has been towards liberalising abortion laws, with most countries allowing terminations in the first 12 to 14 weeks.

Poland and Malta remain outliers, banning abortion in almost all circumstances.

Here is a snapshot of abortion laws in Europe.

UNITED KINGDOM - Abortion is permitted up until 24 weeks of pregnancy, but there is no limit in cases in which a woman's life is at risk or there is serious foetal abnormality.

A "pills-by-post" scheme - introduced during the pandemic - allows women to end pregnancies at home within 10 weeks of conception, but later abortions must be carried out in clinics.

On June 17, MPs approved an amendment (by 379 votes to 137) to stop women in England and Wales being prosecuted for ending their pregnancies beyond the cut-off point.

Medical professionals who help women obtain abortions outside the 24-week limit could still face charges.

 Calls for reform have grown since the conviction in 2023 of a woman who terminated a late-term pregnancy with pills.

The amendment could still be altered as it is part of a broader criminal justice bill moving through parliament.  

FRANCE - France became the first country in the world last year to explicitly guarantee the right to abortion in its constitution.

The move was in direct response to the dramatic rollback of reproductive rights in the United States.

Lawmakers approved the measure, which provides women a "guaranteed freedom" to end an unwanted pregnancy up until 14 weeks, in a landslide vote in March 2024.

Polls showed overwhelming public backing for the change ahead of the vote. Supporters argued it would better protect women's rights as it is harder to amend the constitution than the law.

France legalised abortion in 1975. In 1988, it became the first country to legalise mifepristone as an abortion drug.

POLAND - A 2020 ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal outlawed all terminations due to foetal defects, leading to a de-facto abortion ban in 2021.

Terminations are only permitted in cases of rape, incest or if there is a threat to the mother's life.

The ruling sparked the largest protests since the fall of communism.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk came to power in 2023 promising to liberalise abortion laws, but his efforts have been stymied by the opposition and disagreements within his ruling coalition.

Poland's new president, Karol Nawrocki, has said he will block any bill liberalising the right to abortion.

Despite the regulations, an estimated 120,000 women terminate their pregnancies in Poland annually, mostly using abortion pills.

MALTA - The tiny Mediterranean island eased its blanket ban on abortion in 2023 to allow terminations if a woman's life is in danger.

But the government backed down on an earlier version of the bill that would have also allowed abortion when the mother's health was at serious risk.

Anti-abortion campaigners in the staunchly Roman Catholic country said the definition of a health risk was too vague.

However, reproductive rights experts say the law could delay emergency treatment and endanger lives.

The move to amend the country's abortion ban followed the case of an American woman who started miscarrying while on holiday in Malta in 2022 but was refused a termination because the foetus still had a heartbeat. She was eventually flown to Spain.

Elsewhere in Europe, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and the Faroe Islands also retain strict abortion laws.

ITALY - The mainly Catholic country has allowed terminations within 90 days of conception since 1978, but accessing an abortion is another matter.

Two-thirds of gynaecologists refuse to perform the procedure on moral or religious grounds, according to the Health Ministry.

Italy's right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is anti-abortion but has said she will not seek to change the law.

She says she wants to provide women with alternatives.

SPAIN - Parliament approved legislation in 2023 allowing girls aged 16 and 17 to have abortions without parental consent.

The law also removed a mandatory three-day "reflection" period for women seeking terminations.

Spain's 2010 abortion reform allowed women to end unwanted pregnancies on demand within 14 weeks, or up to 22 weeks in cases of severe foetal abnormalities.

However, most women face problems accessing abortion services due to doctors refusing to perform the procedure.

The reforms also aim to boost the availability of abortion in public hospitals.

GERMANY - Women can have an abortion until 12 weeks after conception but must undergo counselling beforehand.

However, abortion remains in the criminal code in Germany and can technically lead to jail sentences of up to three years.

A government-appointed commission recommended in 2024 that terminations in the first 12 weeks be fully legalised.

Germany only scrapped a Nazi-era law banning doctors from providing information about abortions in 2022.

Some reproductive rights experts say pressure from anti-abortion activists has led to fewer medics conducting terminations.

HUNGARY - Abortion in the first 12 weeks has been legal since 1953, but Hungary tightened its rules in 2022.

The restriction was widely understood to mean that women seeking abortions would have to first listen to the foetal heartbeat.

Hungary is among a dozen European countries that require women to undergo mandatory counselling before ending a pregnancy, a measure criticised by the World Health Organization.

Hungary adopted a new constitution in 2011 guaranteeing the life of a foetus would be protected from conception but did not outlaw abortion.

IRELAND - The Catholic country lifted an almost total ban on abortion in 2019 following a landslide referendum in 2018.

Until then, about 3,000 women a year travelled to Britain for terminations.

The issue was thrust into the spotlight in 2012 when a woman who was miscarrying died from sepsis after doctors refused to end her pregnancy.

Abortion is now allowed up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, and later where the foetus has a terminal condition, or the woman's health is at risk.

This article was updated on June 18, 2025 to reflect developments in Britain and Poland with edits throughout.

(Reporting by Emma Batha and Joanna Gill; Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths, Jon Hemming, Helen Popper and Ellen Wulfhorst.)