Abortion

Health Minister Andreas Xanthos on Friday announced plans to provide free birth control pills to women covered by national health provider EOPYY as well as uninsured women.

With a declining birth rate in Greece of 1.34 per woman, according to 2012 World Bank data, the news that over 30,000 Greek teenage girls under 16 perform abortions every year, according to the Greek Society of Family Planning, is definitely discouraging news, .

Serbian civil rights activists have raised their voices against the possible formation of a special body, that could include priests, that would advise women on abortions, after Serbia's Demography Minister, Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, hinted at such a plan in an interview. Later she said she had been misunderstood.

Activists and experts have called on Croatia to promote and protect human rights and freedoms at home as well as abroad after the country was elected by the UN General Assembly as a new member of the Human Rights Council last week.

A Turkish woman buried her full-term fetus in a plot in Northern Cyprus, a prosecutor has revealed during a court hearing in Girne, in a case in which a total of 10 women, including six Turkish citizens, are suspected of illegally aborting fetuses over five months old, daily Habertürk reported on Nov. 1.

​According to a law that came into force in 1983, abortion was legalized in Turkey. Research conducted in 2013 by Ankara-based Hacettepe University revealed that 14 percent of the women in this country have had at least one abortion in their lives.

Almost 10 percent of gynecology units at Turkish public hospitals do not offer abortion services, while some 78 percent provide the operation only if it is a life-threatening situation, research prepared by the Istanbul-based Kadir Has University has revealed. 
It concluded that although abortions are legal, they are not very accessible in the country. 

The Polish Parliament has rejected the controversial draft bill on a full ban of abortion.

Right-wing and liberal deputies joined efforts and rejected the draft bill with 352 votes "against" and 58 votes "for".

This is the first huge blow against the ruling conservatives in Poland who faced mass protests over the last few days.

Following protests by tens of thousands of women, Polish lawmakers on Oct. 6 rejected plans for a near-total ban on abortion, in a hastily arranged vote that marks the first major domestic setback for the conservative government. 

A row has broken out about abortion rights after a Catholic inititiative in Croatia, "40 Days for Life", started its annual campaign of public prayers in front of hospitals, campaigning against abortion and for the life of unborn children.