Abortion from the legal point of view
Latvian Sexual and Reproductive Health Law article 25 (1) gives definition to the abortion conception: „Termination of pregnancy based on a woman’s wish is an artificial termination based on woman’s request until the period to the 12th week of pregnancy”.
Sexual and reproductive health law came into force at July 1, 2002 and it states that it is officially allowed to terminate a pregnancy in Latvia. Article 5 (2) of this law informs that organisational procedures of the termination of pregnancy in Latvia are regulated by Cabinet of Ministers. The law also says that it is a duty of a person to evade, inter alia, from the termination of pregnancy (article 6(2)), in this way encouraging women to reconsider the necessity of abortion. According to Central Statistical Bureau there have been 12,4 thousand abortions last year in Latvia and 8,9 thousand from them were intentional. This might seem a comparatively high rate for such a small country as Latvia.
…
