Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic expressed her concerns about a bill that would make it more difficult for women in Slovakia to access abortions. In an open letter she sent to the Parliamentary chair Boris Kollar she stated that she considers the protection of women's rights, including their sexual and reproductive health and rights, to be a priority. "Several provisions of this bill introduce restrictions on women's access to safe and legal abortions, which would put Slovakia in conflict with international human rights obligations and endanger women's health and reproductive rights," Mijatovic said in a letter.
Under the provisions of the bill, the waiting period for a woman seeking abortion, meant to give her time to reconsider her decision, would be lengthened from 48 to 96 hours – although Anna Zaborska (OLaNO), the submitter of the bill, has already signalled she will attempt to attach an amending proposal to reduce the waiting period to 72 hours. The bill also seeks to ban any ads for abortion services and plans to rename the procedure from "artificial interruption of pregnancy" to "artificial termination of pregnancy".
