Morocco’s Human Rights Council Proposes Expanded Access to Legal Abortion

The CNDH, with regard to Articles 449 to 452 concerning abortion, wishes that the law avoids women "(and a large number of Moroccan adolescents and young women)" from facing the risks posed by clandestine abortion.

The Council also specifies that the continuation of an unwanted pregnancy for health reasons infringes on the pregnant person and represents "thus a violation of human rights".

To this end, the Council has argued that the pregnant woman should have the right to "terminate her pregnancy if it endangers her mental health and social security, provided that she does not exceed 3 months, except in exceptional cases that the doctor will determine".

The same institution also advocates that the woman have "a one-week period" to make the final decision to have an abortion or not, based on medical advice.

The CNDH did not fail to remind the Government to "keep its commitments" ratified through "human rights-related conventions", in view of the content of the recommendations addressed by two United Nations committees, namely the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

In doing so, the Council is responding to the social debate raised by the issue of abortion, which has mobilized men and women in demonstrations demanding the preservation of individual freedoms.