The right to voluntary termination of pregnancy in Italy: taking stock forty years after the enactment of law no. 194/1978. Comparative law-based remarks

Forty years after the enactment of Law no. 194/78 that governs voluntary in-terruption of pregnancy, Italy has been experiencing difficulties guaranteeing that patients gain access to abortion procedures in a timely fashion. Conscien-tious objection detracts considerably from the very effectiveness of the law, as pointed out by major European institutions as well. Hence, the network of family planning and counselling centres needs to be expanded and supported; such institutions, in fact, may go a long way in ensuring that women make the best, informed decisions. The author has set out to deal with those issues by means of a comparative analysis. He believes that Italian lawmakers ought to follow in the footsteps of other European countries in order to balance the rights of objecting gynaecologists against those of women who choose to have an abortion, despite the relatively small number of doctors willing to carry out the procedure.