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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, January 31, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The largest teaching hospital in Bratislava, the Slovakian capital, has rescinded an earlier decision, announced last week, to stop doing abortions.

On January 25th, Pravda daily news reported that Bratislava University Hospital would no longer carry out abortions in any of its three gynecological clinics in accordance with an “unofficial” directive. This was despite the fact that not all of the hospital’s approximately 80 gynecologists had a conscientious objection to abortion. 

By Thursday, January 27, however, hospital spokesman Zuzana Čižmáriková was backtracking, and told the TASR newswire that the facility will continue to carry out abortions if patients request them.

“Terminations according to patients’ requests will continue to be carried out, notwithstanding the fact that this runs contrary to a new philosophy in the development of the UNB’s gynaecological and obstetrical clinics,” Čižmáriková said.

The announcement of the reversal comes after accusations of political influence. Čižmáriková said that the hospital administration was surprised at the negative response to the decision, since the clinics were only applying their “fundamental right to exercise their own free will.” Speaking to TASR, she denied that the pro-life policy had been adopted at the request of the Christian Democrat Health Minister Ivan Uhliarik.

Uhliarik later issued a statement saying that he had not issued any decree banning abortions and that the practice would continue at the hospital “for health reasons.” He also noted that private clinics continue to offer abortions without restrictions.

Uhliarik commented that he personally welcomed the decision by some doctors to refuse abortions, saying that two other Slovakian hospitals have had similar policies for six and 12 years, respectively.

“Even the Hippocratic oath refers to this so it’s not caprice by some political party,” the minister said. The Christian Democrat party has strongly supported conscience protection laws.

The confusion comes amidst continuing international pressure for Slovakia to further loosen its abortion laws, even as the government is concerned about an extremely low birth rate.

Slovakia allows abortion up to the 12th week for a wide range of reasons, including to preserve the mother’s “mental health,” for pregnancy due to rape or incest, for eugenic purposes in cases of fetal “impairment,” and for “economic or social reasons.” Second-trimester abortions are legal for eugenic reasons if the child is thought likely to be disabled, or in cases of rape or other sexual crimes.

In 2003, the Slovakian government was criticized by a group of EU bureaucrats with the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights when it entered into a formal treaty agreement with the Holy See that would allow hospital staff to refuse to do abortions or artificial reproductive treatments on religious grounds. 

The treaty recognized “the freedom of conscience in the protection and promotion of values intrinsic to the meaning of human life.” Under the draft agreement, the Slovak Republic said it “undertakes not to impose an obligation on the hospitals and healthcare facilities founded by the Catholic Church … to perform artificial abortions or assisted fertilizations.”

The government is worried that the country’s fertility rate is too low, at 1.4 children per woman, which is sometimes referred to by demographers as the “death spiral” rate at which population decline is inevitable.

The UN reports that under its former communist rule, abortion became the preferred form of “contraception” in Slovakia, then part of Czechoslovakia, because it was available free of charge and artificial contraceptives, while legal, were not. This resulted, in 1988, in a government-reported abortion rate of 43.1 percent. This has fallen, according to the government, to 4.9 percent by 1999.

At the time of the country’s independence, 1991, the government declared that the rate of artificial contraception use was 41 percent and International Planned Parenthood Federation reported a five-fold increase in the use of oral contraceptives after 1990.