You have the right to freely decide whether to preserve or terminate your pregnancy. This choice is part of your human right to a private life.
Termination of pregnancy & Private life
Your right to a private and family life encompasses the right to the free choice of whether to become a parent. You have the right to freely decide about the termination of a pregnancy (abortion) or sterilisation if you do not wish to give birth to, or conceive, a child.
Read more about the choice to become a parent or not.
Read more about pregnancy and child birth.
Information & Access to an abortion procedure
Being properly informed in a timely manner about the abortion procedure, its risks and impact to your health, as well as access to, and the availability of, the necessary medical treatment is also part of the human right to health.
The possibility of having an abortion is limited in time, therefore, the time factor is of critical importance. The necessary medical tests should be conducted in a timely manner so that you can decide whether to terminate your pregnancy without delay. After receiving the necessary test results, the abortion procedure should be carried out, if you so wish, forthwith.
example Access to relevant information on the mother’s and foetus’ health should not be delayed.
example The abortion procedure should be carried out without delay, to limit and prevent damage to the mother’s health which may be occasioned by a late abortion.
Read more about access to information about reproductive health and access to reproductive health care.
Abortion procedure
There may be different reasons for deciding on an abortion. You may not wish to become a parent at a particular time or have a child with a particular person. Negative medical indications for you, or for the foetus’ health, or a pregnancy caused by rape, may be reasons for termination. Before an abortion procedure, you will be asked to fill out a statement confirming that you have taken an informed decision to do so.
There are no prohibitions on terminating a pregnancy in Estonia. However, your right to decide on the termination of a pregnancy has certain restrictions, such as the time period for carrying out the procedure.
example An abortion can only be carried out until the 12th week of the pregnancy. In the case of medical indications, also when the pregnant woman is below 15 years or above 45 years of age a pregnancy can be terminated until the 22th week of pregnancy.
Pregnancy of a minor & Abortion
If you are younger than 18 years and you do not wish to involve your parents and you understand the considerations for and against having an abortion it is sufficient to have your consent to have the abortion. A health care professional must inform you that it is important to involve your legal representative or another adult whom you trust.
What human rights violation may there be?
Your right to health may have been violated if you are denied an abortion procedure even though the legal requirements have been met. This may also lead to a violation of your right to a private life since aspects of your reproductive health are closely linked to your private life.
If you have been denied access to information about your, and your expected baby’s health, or you have not been correctly and properly informed in a timely manner, this may have negatively affected your private life and thus led to a violation of your right to a private life. Your right to a private life may also have been violated if you need to terminate your pregnancy due to medical negligence by doctors.
example Your right to a private life may have been violated if you are pressured to terminate your pregnancy due to contradictory, biased and/or misleading information about your foetus. For example if you are pressured to abort an intersex foetus.
If an abortion procedure is denied to you or you are pressured to have an abortion only because you belong to a group with certain characteristics associated with your race, ethnic origin, disability, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other similar grounds, it violates the prohibition of discrimination.