Tens of thousands call for ban on abortions in Slovakia

Tens of thousands of protesters reportedly took the streets of Slovakia’s capital on Sunday to call for a complete ban on abortions.

Protesters gathered in the streets of Bratislava ahead of parliamentary debate on abortion restriction scheduled this month, Reuters reported.

{mosads}The crowd carried signs like “A human is human regardless of size” and “Who kills an unborn child kills the future of the nation?” according to the news service. 

The central European country currently allows abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy or 24 weeks if there is a health problem.

Conservative lawmakers in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation, however, reportedly want to make abortions illegal — even in cases of rape or if there is a health complication — or legal until six or eight weeks into the pregnancy. 

Parliament will discuss the proposed abortion limits, according to Reuters, which noted that the ruling Smer party and the junior Slovak National Party have not indicated if they support them.

Reuters reported that a recent survey found 34.6 percent of the respondents in Slovakia supported limiting abortion accessibility, while 55.5 percent oppose it. Abortions in Slovakia as a whole have almost been cut in half within the past decade, the news service noted.