Proposal to Allow Medical Abortions Up to 8 Weeks of Pregnancy in Armenia

Members of the Civil Contract faction in the National Assembly of Armenia have proposed to permit medical abortions up to 8 weeks of pregnancy. The draft law amending the Law on Human Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights received a positive conclusion from the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Health and has been included in the agenda for the upcoming extraordinary session.

The proposal has been put forward by KP members Narek Zeynaleyan, Lusine Badalyan, Tatevik Gasparyan, and Lena Nazaryan. Narek Zeynaleyan, the head of the committee and co-author of the draft, stated that the proposal aims to make medical abortions more accessible and safer, as current legislation only allows for abortions to be conducted in hospital settings and by surgical methods.

“With the advancement in modern medicine, there are now medications that facilitate non-harmful abortion procedures. We are introducing these regulations and allowing medical abortions to be performed in medical organizations with obstetrician-gynecologist licenses, both in outpatient and hospital settings for pregnancies up to 8 weeks,” he said.

Zeynaleyan emphasized that the World Health Organization guidelines suggest permitting medical abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, but due to the novelty of this regulation and the need to accumulate sufficient experience, it was decided to lower the threshold.

Additionally, the authors of the draft propose regulations concerning reproductive assisted technologies and have raised the age limit for surrogates and those utilizing their services. “We have taken into account the needs and demand, and increased the age limit for surrogate service users from 53 to 55 years. The previous legal limit for surrogate mothers was 35 years, and we have raised it to 38 years,” Zeynaleyan added.

Another regulation pertains to the preservation, export, import, and destruction of gametes, for which there was no prior regulation on handling unused gametes. “We have introduced regulations regarding this; the biological parent will be able to make a donation. We have enabled medical institutions to carry out destruction or donations with the biological parents' consent,” stated the co-author of the draft.

Zeynaleyan highlighted that specific restrictions have been introduced regarding the use of assisted reproductive technologies for non-Armenians, prioritizing Armenians in consideration of existing needs. Armenian Deputy Minister of Health Armen Gasparyan pointed out that such significant global changes are being proposed for the first time, and they hope it will improve demographic data.