Abortion legislation | Practical conditions | Abortion statistics
Characteristics of women having induced abortion | Fertility and contraception data | Country-specific characteristics
1978: abortion is allowed (Law No. 194 dated 22 May)
Ministerial circular March 2020: Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy among activities considered non-deferrable
On 4 August 2020, the Council of Health expressed a favorable opinion regarding recourse to voluntary termination of pregnancy by pharmacological method up to 63 days’ or 9 complete weeks’ gestation
Specific conditions due to COVID-19
- Guidelines on Organization of Hospital and Territorial Services during an emergency COVID-19 issued by the Ministry of Health in March 2020
- Updated Guidelines of Health Ministry regarding EMA issued on August 13 th 2020 – Change of gestational limit for EMA from 7 to 9 weeks
– Removal of a 3-day hospital stay in order to access EMA
– Provision of EMA extended outside the hospital setting – to local, public health centres and family planning services
Legal conditions
- Written consent by the woman
- Pre-abortion consultation (legal counselling) only for minor without parental agreement + pre-abortion confirmation consultation (only medical)
- Mandatory 7-day period between pre-abortion consultation and abortion procedure unless abortion is urgently required
Specific conditions for minors
- Parent’s (or guardian’s) consent required for minors under 18. However, in a case where the parents deny such permisssion, or when the direct parent consultation is deemed unfeasible, the abortion procedure can be authorized by the juvenile judge. Urgent procedures exempt the woman from obtaining either the parental or the judicial consent. If the minor is in the second trimester of pregnancy the limits set for this gestational age also apply.
Abortion legislation | Practical conditions | Abortion statistics | Characteristics of women having induced abortion
Fertility and contraception data | Country-specific characteristics
Women have to give written consent.
The slides presented are freely accessible. They may be used, copied, displayed or distributed provided that their source is given
SOURCES
COVID measures taken from the article by Bojovic N, Stanisljevic J, Giunti G. The impact of COVID-19 on abortion access: Insights from the European Union and the United Kingdom. Health Policy. 2021 Jul;125(7):841-858.
Law No. 194 dated 22 May 1978 (Italian) (http://www.salute.gov.it/imgs/C_17_normativa_845_allegato.pdf)
Law No. 194 dated 22 May 1978 (English)(http://www.columbia.edu/itc/history/degrazia/courseworks/legge_194.pdf)
http://www.quotidianosanita.it/allegati/allegato228648.pdf
https://www.salute.gov.it/portale/donna/dettaglioNotizieDonna.jsp?lingua=italiano&menu=notizie&p=dalministero&id=5593
https://www.salute.gov.it/portale/documentazione/p6_2_2_1.jsp?lingua=italiano&id=3103
https://www.salute.gov.it/portale/donna/dettaglioPubblicazioniDonna.jsp?lingua=italiano&id=3236
https://www.salute.gov.it/imgs/C_17_pubblicazioni_3103_0_alleg.pdf
https://www.istat.it/it/files/2020/12/REPORT-NATALITA-2020.pdf
https://www.statista.com/statistics/568907/mother-average-age-at-childbirth-in-italy-by-region/
https://www.salute.gov.it/portale/fertility/dettaglioNotizieFertility.jsp?lingua=italiano&menu=notizie&p=dalministero&id=5518
Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (https://www.istat.it/it/files/2015/12/come-cambia-la-vita-delle-donne.pdf)
Ministero della Salute Relazione del Ministero della Salute – Tabelle 2015 (http://www.salute.gov.it/imgs/C_17_pubblicazioni_2552_ulterioriallegati_ulterioreallegato_1_alleg.pdf)
https://www.documentazione.info/il-testo-della-legge-194-sullaborto-0
We thank Dr. Mirella PARACHINI for her help in data collection.
If you have additional data or if you would like to comment some information, please contact info@exelgyn.com.
Page updated in July 2022