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Swiss voters on Sunday agreed to ease the country’s abortion laws, among the strictest in Europe, and bring them closer to much of the rest of the continent’s laws and actual practice in Switzerland.
About 72 percent of voters approved a measure permitting abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, provided the woman requests the procedure in writing and agrees to counseling and medical advice. After 12 weeks, a woman may obtain an abortion only if she can show a physician that her physical health is endangered or that she faces “profound distress.”
The existing Swiss law, dating from 1942, had allowed pregnancies to be terminated only if the mother’s health was at risk or in cases of rape.
