Switzerland abortion laws

Switzerland abortion laws began allowing abortion through the first 12 weeks of pregnancy if there the pregnancy is causing “serious physical harm” to the mother or “at the written request of the woman who says that she is in a state of distress.” This allowance of abortion is due to a public referendum that passed in 2002 (a similar one was voted down in 1977).

But the abortion rate in Switzerland is low, at only 6 abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age.

Prior to 2002, abortion was illegal in Switzerland.

No right by fathers

In 2024, the highest court in Switzerland (its Federal Court) ruled that a father has no rights with respect to the unborn child:

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After a man from the Swiss canton of Fribourg reported his ex-girlfriend for a late-term abortion, ... [the father argued that] he was a “victim” under the definition of the law. The highest Swiss court sees things differently: it states that the ban on late-term abortions protects the unborn child, not the man involved. And because a foetus does not have legal personality before birth, the father cannot be regarded as a victim. The man from Fribourg could thus not lodge a complaint, the court said.

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