Prince Alois of Liechtenstein is expected to veto an initiative passed by the country’s parliament that would legalise abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Situated between Switzerland and Austria, Liechtenstein – the majority of whose roughly 42,000 citizens identify as Roman Catholic – has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. The tiny Alpine principality is also “one of the few places on earth where a royal family still reigns with real political power”, said The Australian Women’s Weekly. Unlike other European monarchies, the constitution allows the ruling prince to dismiss governments, appoint judges, call referendums and veto legislation.
‘Protection of life’
Liechtenstein last held a referendum on legalising abortion in 2011, when the proposal was rejected by 52% of voters. Under current laws, abortion is allowed only in limited circumstances, including when a woman’s life is at risk, or if pregnancy involves a girl under the age of 14 (the age of consent) and/or is the result of rape. A woman who undergoes a termination outside those exemptions can be jailed for up to a year, with abortion providers liable for up to three years in prison.
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Last week Liechtenstein’s parliament, the 25-seat Landtag, narrowly backed a citizens’ initiative which would legalise abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, by 13 votes to 12. It would also lift the country’s ban on providing information about abortions and bring them under health insurance cover. MPs rejected another proposal to put the matter to a public vote, despite a public opinion survey, the Lie Barometer, showing that a majority would vote in favour of it.
The initiative is unlikely to become law, however, after Prince Alois, who serves as regent for his father Prince Hans-Adam II, indicated to the Liechtensteiner Vaterland newspaper earlier this year he would veto any legislation of this kind, citing “the central legal interest of the protection of life”.
Currently, women in Liechtenstein must travel abroad if they wish to have an abortion, although since 2015 they have been able to do so without facing a penalty.
Liechtenstein has also not had a maternity ward for several years, “meaning that women must travel abroad to give birth”, said Vatican News. Benno Elbs, the archbishop of Vaduz, stressed the importance of a support system in which “saying yes to life becomes possible”. “A society that protects life must also be a society that does not abandon people in difficulty,” he told the publication.
‘Broader consolidation of power’
The last time the abortion debate was put to a public vote, the royal family threatened to use its power of veto if the result did not go in their favour. Such a step “would have plunged our nation into a severe crisis”, said Gabriella Alvarez-Hummel, a campaigner from Liechtenstein focusing on reproductive rights, in The Guardian. More than a decade on, “speaking out in favour of legalising abortion is regarded as speaking out against the monarchy”.
In August, Prince Alois announced a change to royal succession rules to allow women to ascend the throne on equal terms with men, breaking with three centuries of dynastic tradition. “This means that in future the first-born child, regardless of sex, will become heir to the throne and later princess or prince of Liechtenstein”, the House of Liechtenstein said in a statement.
The move was “hailed as overdue progress” but it also “masked a much broader consolidation of power”, said the Financial Times. Internal documents seen by the FT show that in a closed-door session of family members over the summer “Europe’s wealthiest ruling dynasty had quietly approved an overhaul that strengthens the authority of a prince who already wields extraordinary power”, while at the same time “reducing some of the rights and checks exercised by his relatives in the Princely House of Liechtenstein”.
Checks on Prince Alois were already “quite limited”, Wouter Veenendaal, professor of kingdom affairs at Leiden University, told the newspaper. The powers he now wields “would be unthinkable in Europe’s larger constitutional monarchies”.
