Abortion laws in Europe vary widely: most countries allow the procedure on request through about twelve weeks of pregnancy, a growing group extends that window to fourteen weeks or further, and a small number — Malta, Poland, Andorra, Liechtenstein, and Monaco — still ban abortion except in narrow circumstances.1Center for Reproductive Rights. World’s Abortion Laws Beyond the headline limits, mandatory counseling, waiting periods, dual-doctor approval, and provider conscientious objection shape whether legal access translates into practical access.
Where Abortion Is Available on Request
Twelve weeks counted from the first day of the last menstrual period is the most common cutoff for elective abortion across the continent. Germany, France, Italy, and Ireland all sit at or near that mark. Because gestational age is measured from the last period rather than conception, a twelve-week legal limit corresponds to roughly ten weeks of embryonic development.1Center for Reproductive Rights. World’s Abortion Laws
Several countries go further. France and Germany have both moved to fourteen weeks in recent reforms, and Spain allows abortion on request through fourteen weeks as well. The Netherlands and England, Scotland, and Wales sit at the permissive end of the spectrum, permitting abortion up to twenty-four weeks (technically twenty-three weeks and six days) where two doctors agree that continuing the pregnancy poses a greater risk to the woman’s health than ending it. That ground covers the vast majority of early abortions performed in the UK.2MSI Choices. Abortion and Your Rights
What Happens After the On-Request Window Closes
Once the elective window has passed, access narrows to specific grounds: newly discovered health complications, severe fetal anomalies, or a threat to the pregnant person’s life. Most European legal systems impose no gestational limit at all when the pregnant person’s life is in immediate danger. These later-term authorizations are tightly regulated and typically require sign-off from specialists or hospital ethics boards.
Nearly every European country — including those with otherwise strict laws — recognizes some form of medical-grounds exception covering risk to life, serious risk to physical or mental health, or confirmed severe fetal impairment.
Counseling, Waiting Periods, and Doctor Approval
Around a dozen European countries require some form of mandatory counseling before an abortion. Germany’s system is among the most structured: the counseling session must take place at a government-approved center, and the counselor cannot be the doctor who performs the procedure. The law also requires the counseling itself to be outcome-neutral rather than directive.3InformedHealth.org. Abortion in Germany – Before an Abortion
Not every country aims for neutrality. Some have been criticized for requiring information emphasizing alternatives or fetal development in ways critics describe as intended to discourage the procedure. Spain used to require a state-provided information packet and a waiting period after receiving it; a 2023 reform eliminated both.
Mandatory waiting periods between the initial consultation and the procedure remain common:
- Germany: three days3InformedHealth.org. Abortion in Germany – Before an Abortion
- Ireland: three days
- Luxembourg: three days for early-term procedures4Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Abortion in the EU Fact Sheets
- The Netherlands: five days
- Belgium: six days
A clinic that performs the procedure before the mandated wait has elapsed faces legal consequences. The practical effect is that obtaining an abortion in countries with both counseling and waiting requirements takes at least two separate visits across several days, which can push some patients closer to the gestational limit.
Some jurisdictions add a dual-authorization requirement. In England, Scotland, and Wales, two doctors must independently agree that a legal ground is met.2MSI Choices. Abortion and Your Rights Finland also requires two doctors in most cases, though a single doctor suffices if the patient is under seventeen, over forty, or already has four children. Luxembourg requires two doctors for procedures after twelve weeks.4Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Abortion in the EU Fact Sheets
When Providers Refuse: Conscientious Objection
Nearly every European country allows individual healthcare workers to refuse participation in abortion procedures on personal conscience grounds. What determines whether patients can still get care is how the system manages that refusal. Where it works, objecting doctors must refer patients to a willing provider, or direct-entry pathways exist so a single objector cannot block access. England, Norway, and Portugal have been cited as countries where these mechanisms function effectively.5PubMed Central. Regulation of Conscientious Objection to Abortion – An International Comparative Multiple-Case Study
Italy is the cautionary example. Roughly seventy percent of Italian gynecologists have registered as conscientious objectors, a share that has held steady for over two decades. Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978, but the concentration of objecting staff leaves the remaining providers with disproportionate workloads. Regions with high objection rates see more abortions delayed past twenty-one days from the initial request.6PubMed Central. The Impact of Conscientious Objection on Voluntary Abortion in Italy
Countries Where Abortion Is Banned or Near-Banned
Malta
Malta maintained a complete ban with no exceptions until 2023. The Criminal Code, through Articles 241 to 243, criminalized abortion under all circumstances. A 2023 amendment added Article 243B, creating a narrow exception: an intervention that ends a pregnancy is not a crime if performed to save the life of a pregnant person whose life is at immediate risk, or to protect the health of a pregnant person facing a complication that could lead to death.7University of Malta. Malta – Criminal Law in Relation to Abortion
The conditions are strict. Where life is at immediate risk, the doctor must reasonably believe the fetus has not reached viability. Where the situation involves grave health jeopardy rather than immediate danger to life, a three-person specialist medical team must confirm the necessity, agree the fetus is not viable and cannot be delivered, and the procedure must take place in a licensed hospital.7University of Malta. Malta – Criminal Law in Relation to Abortion
Poland
Poland’s law is governed by the 1993 Act on Family Planning, which originally permitted abortion on three grounds: threat to the woman’s life or health, pregnancy from a criminal act, and severe fetal abnormality. On 22 October 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled the fetal abnormality ground incompatible with the constitution. The ruling took effect on 27 January 2021. Because fetal abnormality had accounted for most of the roughly 1,000 legal abortions performed annually in Polish hospitals, the decision effectively eliminated the majority of legal access.8European Court of Human Rights. Case of ML v Poland
Polish law now allows abortion only when the pregnancy endangers the woman’s life or health, or when there are strong grounds to believe it resulted from a criminal act such as rape or incest. The criminal-act window closes at twelve weeks. The life-or-health exception has no gestational limit but requires certification by a doctor other than the one performing the procedure, unless the situation is an immediate threat to life.9Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. AC Judgment Poland Medical professionals who perform an abortion outside these grounds face criminal penalties; the pregnant person herself is not prosecuted.
Despite a change in government after the 2023 elections, reform has moved slowly. Parliament established a special commission in April 2024 to review proposals for decriminalizing or expanding access, but as of early 2026 those proposals remain pending.
Andorra, Liechtenstein, and Monaco
Andorra criminalizes abortion with up to six months’ imprisonment for the pregnant person and up to three years for the provider, and uniquely extends the prohibition to procedures obtained outside the country. Liechtenstein bans abortion and prohibits even the provision of information about it. Monaco decriminalized abortion for the pregnant person in 2019 but continued to punish providers with up to ten years in prison until May 2025, when the elected assembly voted to allow the procedure. That legislation is pending government implementation.
Recent Legal Changes
On March 8, 2024, France became the first country in the world to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution. The amendment guarantees a woman’s freedom to end a pregnancy and directs the legislature to define the conditions. Abortion had been legal in France since 1975; the constitutional protection was partly a response to the rollback of abortion rights in the United States and in Poland.
Ireland’s shift took a different path. A 2018 referendum repealed the constitutional ban by a two-to-one margin, producing the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. Since January 2019, abortion has been available on request up to twelve weeks after a three-day waiting period, with additional access for risk to health or life and for fatal fetal anomalies. The law does not criminalize the pregnant person. San Marino followed a similar arc; a 2021 referendum legalized abortion on request up to twelve weeks, replacing one of Europe’s strictest bans.
Spain reformed its law in January 2023, eliminating the mandatory waiting period and the state-provided information packet, and lowering the age at which a minor can consent to abortion from eighteen back to sixteen. Those changes reversed restrictions a previous conservative government had introduced in 2015.
At the EU level, the European Parliament voted in April 2024 on a resolution calling for the right to abortion to be included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The resolution is politically significant but practically limited: amending the Charter requires unanimous agreement from all member states, and healthcare remains under national authority.10European Parliament. Making the Right to Abortion an EU Fundamental Right Countries like Poland and Malta would almost certainly block such an amendment.
Traveling to Another Country for Abortion Care
People in restrictive countries routinely travel to neighboring jurisdictions for care. The procedure is governed by the law of the country where it takes place, not the patient’s home country. The Netherlands and England are the most common destinations, with relatively high gestational limits, established clinic networks, and experience serving international patients. Andorra is an exception to the general principle: it criminalizes abortions obtained abroad.
Costs vary by provider and gestational age. At BPAS clinics in England, a medication abortion before ten weeks runs about €820, while surgical procedures range from roughly €1,520 up to fourteen weeks to €3,970 after twenty weeks.11British Pregnancy Advisory Service. Abortion Care – Costs and Pricing NUPAS, another UK provider, lists prices from €410 for early medication abortion to €1,725 for procedures between nineteen and twenty-four weeks, plus a €95 initial consultation fee.12NUPAS. International Patients These fees typically cover consultation, procedure, and immediate follow-up but not travel, accommodation, or time off work.
Logistics add complexity. Most clinics require a pre-scheduled appointment, and patients need a valid passport or EU identity card. The mandatory waiting period imposed by the host country applies regardless of where the patient traveled from: five days in the Netherlands, six in Belgium. Anyone traveling should plan for potentially two trips or an extended stay. After the procedure, clinics provide discharge documents and generally offer a follow-up telephone line for questions during recovery at home.
Medication Abortion and Telemedicine
Medication abortion using mifepristone followed by misoprostol has become the standard method for early-pregnancy terminations, and several European countries now allow parts or all of the process to happen at home. England, Scotland, and Wales moved to a fully remote telemedicine model for medication abortion up to ten weeks, allowing patients to consult a provider by phone and receive the medications by mail without an in-person visit or ultrasound. France permits home use of abortion medication up to nine weeks after an in-person visit.13PubMed Central. Demand for Self-Managed Online Telemedicine Abortion in Eight European Countries Germany allows the mandatory pre-abortion counseling to occur by phone or video, though the procedure itself still requires a clinical visit.
For people in restrictive countries without legal domestic options, online telemedicine services such as Women on Web provide self-managed medication abortion by mail up to ten weeks. These services operate in a legal gray area: the medication is legal in the country where it is prescribed and posted from, but receiving it may violate the patient’s home-country law. Research has found that requests spike in countries where legal access was reduced or procedural barriers were tightened.