16th January 2025
8 out of 10 Lithuanian residents tend to believe that a woman has the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy. Women (82%) agree with this statement more often than men (74%). This view was revealed in a public survey commissioned by the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson.
Compared to data from 2021, more people now recognize a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy – back in 2021, 7 out of 10 residents held this view. It is also worth noting that significantly fewer people now disagree with this statement: in 2024, 11% of people opposed a woman’s right to choose to terminate a pregnancy, whereas in 2021, this number was as high as 23%.
“The improvement in public attitudes is supported by the consistent work of organizations working in the field of gender equality, educating the public, constantly bringing issues of women’s reproductive health into the spotlight, and encouraging discussion,” says Seimas Ombudsperson Jolita Miliuvienė, who is temporarily performing the duties of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson.
In April 2024, the European Parliament issued a resolution proposing to include the right to terminate a pregnancy in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Although the resolution is not legally binding for member states, it is an important symbolic step – the European Parliament considers the right to safe pregnancy termination to be one of the fundamental human rights.
“The choice to have children, as well as not to have them, is part of private life, which is protected by the Constitution. Every woman’s guaranteed freedom of choice includes the right to access existing reproductive health care technologies related to infertility, contraception, and pregnancy termination. Inaccessible pregnancy termination services can have a harmful impact on a woman’s health and well-being, thus creating grounds for violating the constitutional right to health,” emphasizes J. Miliuvienė.
She also points out that France can be considered a good example, as it enshrined the right to terminate a pregnancy in its Constitution last year: “This is the first country in the world to take such a step. This constitutional amendment means that no government in the future will be able to easily revoke the right to terminate a pregnancy.”
The representative survey of Lithuanian residents was conducted from July 19 to 29, 2024. It was carried out by UAB “Spinter Research” at the request of the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson. A total of 1,007 individuals over the age of 18 were surveyed.