North Macedonia’s Parliament adopts Law on Abortion


North Macedonia’s Parliament adopted Thursday the Law on Termination of Pregnancy.

Under the new abortion law, several administrative procedures hindering the execution of the right to abortion, including a mandatory three-day waiting period, are scrapped.

Amendments to the law envisage that women should be provided with full, objective and accurate information about the medical intervention to terminate unwanted pregnancy. Women will be allowed to decide on their own whether to terminate a pregnancy, without being forced by others, based on objective information regarding the medical intervention.

These changes are in relation to a law enacted in 2013, which introduced several restrictions to the whole procedure.

Also, in first reading, changes were passed to the Law on the Government, which envisage the transformation of the secretariat in charge of implementing the Ohrid Framework Agreement into a ministry for political system and relations between the communities.