Health Minister Alexandru Rogobete distanced himself on Tuesday from the bill by some unaffiliated parliamentarians that could limit the right to abortion and stressed that Romania needs to increase the birth rate, but not through coercion or pressure on women.
"The birth rate is a sensitive subject, an important subject, which often arouses many emotions and debates. Romania, of course, needs to increase the birth rate, but my message is a firm one - not through coercion and not through pressure on women. I saw, a few days ago, last week, an idea, a legislative initiative through which to ban abortion. I tell you clearly and firmly that the Ministry of Health and I, as the Minister of Health, and I am sure that my colleagues from the two Health Committees in the two Chambers of Parliament are also opposed to these initiatives. We have the obligation to respect fundamental rights, the right to physical integrity, to bodily autonomy, as they are guaranteed in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union," Rogobete conveyed, on Tuesday, at a round table with the theme ''Where is the birth rate? Policies for the Future'', organized at the Senate.
According to the minister, "birth rate is also directly linked to screening and prevention." "In recent years, there have been a series of projects with European funds, in particular, for the development of methodologies or pilot projects for screening and prevention for various pathologies. Now, we have these methodologies thought out and designed, tested in many places with success, in other places with less success, but, please, we can learn from both positive and less positive examples. We have designed, at the level of the Ministry of Health, an extended working group (...) to create the national prevention strategy, which will include several components," explained Alexandru Rogobete.
Unaffiliated MPs Monica Ionescu and Radu-Mihail Ionescu, former POT MPs until February 2025, submitted to the Senate a legislative proposal to amend Article 202 of the Criminal Code.
"Harm to the fetus, during pregnancy or during childbirth, by any means or procedures, which prevented the establishment of extrauterine life, is punishable by imprisonment from 3 to 7 years. The provisions regarding the punishment provided for in paragraph (3) (art. 202 of the Criminal Code, n.r.) also apply when the harm to the fetus, committed during pregnancy, resulted in its death, if this occurred after the 14th week of pregnancy," stipulates the draft submitted to the Senate.
Comentează