From the pro-choice book
“The practice of conscience-based refusal (conscientious objection) arises when health professionals refuse to provide certain services based on religious, moral, or philosophical objections. Refusal to provide services…is an increasing barrier to women’s access to timely abortion services across Europe where effective regulation of the practice is scant…
The number of objecting providers appears to be increasing in some countries without effective responses to ensure access to lawful abortion services. For instance, in Italy, where there is a law requiring providers to register their refusal to provide abortions, the Ministry of Health has reported that between 2003 and 2007, the number of gynaecologists invoking conscience in their refusal to perform an abortion rose from 58.7% to 69.2%.”
Christina Zampas “Legal and Political Discourses on Women’s Right to Abortion” in Sylvia De Zordo, Joanna Mishtal and Lorena Anton, eds. A Fragmented Landscape: Abortion Governance and Protest Logics in Europe (New York: Berghahn, 2017)
Source for statistic: Italy, Ministry of Health “Report on the Ministry of Health on the Performance of the Law Containing Rules for the Social Care Of Maternity and Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy: 2006 – 07” (Rome, 2008)
34 – 35
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