Abortion, a San Marino now has the law
Voluntary abortion is also law in the Republic of San Marino. Last night the Great and General Council approved the law governing the voluntary termination of pregnancy with 32 votes in favor, 7 against and 10 abstentions. This is an important step, taken after a long mediation on the issues on which the opposing parties were more divided.
Among the most controversial aspects are “emergency” contraception and sex education in schools, the role of “associative structures” that can “support mothers”.
Concretely, it will be possible to take advantage of the law from its entry into force, scheduled for the fifth day following that of its legal publication.
In fact, even if the law provides for the establishment of the counseling center, a paragraph has been inserted into the law that explains how “in the delays referred to in paragraph 1 and until the establishment of the counseling center, requests for access to voluntary termination of pregnancy are taken into account charged by the UOC Obstetrics and Gynecology of the ISS which delegates to the affiliated health facility outside the Republic “.
A detail: before the vote there was the – unusual – declaration of the Captains Regent in which they thanked the Institutional Secretariat and the policies they mediated “to achieve a result that would implement a referendum”. Furthermore, the referendum committees were thanked “because in their work they have produced a debate in the country demonstrating that the participation of civil society is of great value in a democratic country”.
At the end of September last year, the oldest republic in the world had already established that abortion was no longer a crime. In fact, its Penal Code established, with a rule dating back to 1865, that whoever procures an abortion or who participates in it risks from six months to three years in prison, with a mitigation in the case of extra-marital pregnancy.