Conscientious objection to abortion is the right of medical staff to refuse participation in abortion for personal belief. Because of conscientious objection in some countries, even if abortion is legal, it is difficult for women to find non-objecting gynaecologists and thus to access abortion.
Doctors and other medical personnel have the right to conscientious objection. Rada Borić has argued that it is given more prominence than the women's right to abortion, thus making it difficult. On February 21, 2017 the Constitutional Court ordered the Parliament to enact new abortion law within two years, introducing educational and preventive measures to make abortion an exception and not a rule, and to regulate conscientious objection.
In the Czech Republic since 2011 doctors and medical personnel can choose not to perform an abortion or prescribe any contraceptive. But if a doctor refuse to perform an abortion they have to refer the patient to another doctor who can perform it.
Under section 22 of the Health Act 2018 medical practitioners, nurses and midwives have the right not to participate in abortions, except when there is a risk to life or health of the pregnant woman in emergency. They also have to make arrangements to enable the woman to get an abortion.
Italy
The law gives the option for health professionals to claim the right to refuse to perform abortion. If the health personnel demands to be conscientious objector, they have to declare it in advance. However, conscientious objection may not be invoked by health professionals if the personal intervention is essential in order to save the life of a woman in imminent danger. Italy keeps a record of the objecting doctors. According to data from the Ministry of Health, between 1997 and 2016 there was a 12.9% increase in the number of gynecologists who refuse to perform abortions on moral grounds, from 62.8% to 70.9%, the highest percentage ever recorded. As of 2016 the percentage is higher than the national average in Southern Italy and Sicily and Sardinia, and lower in Central and Northern Italy. The percentage is growing in all the macroregions except the North. As a result, voluntary abortion is performed only in 60% of the hospitals of the country. Also, non-objecting doctors suffers discrimination, and -in some provinces- needs to perform record-numbers of abortions, up to 15.8 per week in the province of Taranto or 12.2 in the province of Catania. A resolution by the Council of Europe has found several violations of the European Social Charter in the situation:
right to work and to dignity at work of non-objecting medical practitioners, because of different treatment and moral harassment.
Poland
The Constitutional Tribunal "abolished a requirement that medical professionals who refuse to provide health services refer patients to an alternate medical provider".
Portugal
Abortion was legalised in Portugal in 2007. The law allows conscientious objection and many doctors refuse to perform abortion, making it difficult for women to access it.
