BRUSSELS, 24 September 2025 – The European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF) presents the European Abortion Policies Atlas 2025, a comprehensive mapping of abortion laws, policies, and access across 49 countries and territories in Europe.
The launch event at the European Parliament was hosted by MEP Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle (Renew Europe, Netherlands) and MEP Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus (S&D, Poland) and featured interventions of MEP Emma Rafowicz (S&D, France), MEPAlice Bah Kuhnke (Greens/EFA, Sweden), Prof. Isabel Stabile from the University of Malta and founder of Doctors for Choice Malta and Neil Datta, Executive Director of EPF.
During the event, Members of the European Parliament and experts in sexual and reproductive health highlighted the urgent need to modernise abortion laws, remove unnecessary obstacles, and bring national policies in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance, hereby calling for the full decriminalisation of abortion and access on request without gestational limits.
Key Findings
The Atlas scores countries across four key criteria: Legal Status, Access, Clinical Care and Service Delivery, and Information.
- Top performers: Sweden (94.6%), France (85.2%) and the Netherlands (80.3%) lead the region with strong legal protections that fully decriminalise abortion, wide service availability, national health coverage, government-led online information and countering misinformation.
- Lowest performers: Andorra, Malta and Poland remain at the bottom of the ranking, with abortion largely criminalised with strict penalties, access and clinical care highly restricted or unavailable, and a lack of governmental information.
- Legal status: While 48 countries allow abortion on some grounds, only one country guarantees the full freedom to access abortion. Nine countries still regulate abortion in their criminal codes, exposing patients and providers to potential penalties.
- Access barriers: Abortion is available on request in 43 countries, but only 8 countries impose no mandatory barriers such as waiting periods, compulsory counselling, or third-party authorisation.
- Health coverage and service delivery: Just 23 countries cover abortion under national health insurance, 11 countries do not provide medical abortion (non-surgical), and only 5 countries allow abortion care via telemedicine.
- Information & protection: While 22 governments provide reliable online information on abortion services, only 7 countries offer legal protection against harassment around clinics.
Policy Developments 2021–2025
Since the previous edition in 2021, 15 countries have taken steps forward. France made history by enshrining the right to abortion in its constitution and extending gestational limits, while Luxembourg and the Netherlands removed mandatory waiting periods. Other positive reforms include Denmark extending limits to 18 weeks, Norway expanding access, and Lithuania legalising medical abortion.
However, negative trends have emerged in Belarus, Georgia, Italy, Russia, Malta and Slovakia, where new restrictions, including medically unnecessary procedures, harassment of providers, and state-led disinformation, are creating barriers to abortion access.
Recommendations
The Atlas urges policymakers to:
- Modernise abortion laws to decriminalise it and remove it from penal codes.
- Ensure coverage under national health systems, treating abortion like any other essential medical service.
- Remove unnecessary obstacles, including waiting periods, third-party authorisations, and medically unwarranted procedures.
- Provide accurate government information and counter disinformation.
- Conduct additional research on key barriers, such as stigma, geographical discrepancies, cost, refusal of care, and burden of travel.
The European Abortion Policies Atlas 2025 serves as a critical tool for policymakers, healthcare professionals, and civil society to track progress and hold governments accountable for upholding sexual and reproductive rights.
For further details, access the full Atlas HERE