By Hilary White
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia November 22, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The small south-central European country of Slovenia is suffering from a low birth rate and a government minister has suggested financial restrictions on abortion as a remedy.
Slovenian Minister for Labour, Family and Social Affairs, Janez Drobnic, suggested that the state’s public health system should only pay for abortions if the mother’s life would be threatened by giving birth.
“According to the constitution, human life is untouchable and we believe the state is not obliged to give financial support for an abortion,” said a statement from Drobnic. Reuters reported that the government of Slovenia is looking at ways to tackle the country’s low birth rate.
United Nations documents show that Slovenia allows and pays for abortion under any or all circumstances including “foetal impairment,” the “mental health” of the woman or simply on request.
The 1991 Constitution of Slovenia says, “the decision to bear one’s own children is free”, a change from the former Yugoslav constitution which said, “it is a human right freely to decide on the birth of children.” The alteration raised concerns among abortion proponents that the new government had the intention of modifying the abortion law.
Slovenia, part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia before independence in1991, has a dangerously low birth rate of 1.25 children per woman and suffers from a shrinking and aging population.
In common with with many post-Christian European countries, the median age of men in Slovenia is 39 years and 42.2 years for women. Demographers have warned that those countries with low birth rates and high median female age face eventual population implosion as fewer and fewer children are able to be conceived. 15.7% of the population is over 65 years.