Last updated on August 26th, 2026 at 08:52 am
Hereditary Prince Alois of Liechtenstein has announced that he would veto an initiative to legalize abortion up to 12 weeks in his country.
A grassroots committee launched an initiative in February seeking to decriminalize abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The campaign also wants the ban on abortion-related information lifted and health insurance to pay for the procedure.
Hereditary Prince Alois says he will use his veto if parliament, the Landtag, ever sends him such a bill. Asked by Liechtensteiner Vaterland whether he would still block the change if voters backed it, he answered simply: “Yes.”
He argued that time-limitation laws fail to defend the central legal principle of protecting life. The prince insisted that the state’s duty to protect the unborn must remain visible at every stage of pregnancy, not only after an arbitrary cutoff.
Under current law, abortion is permitted in cases of rape, when the girl or woman is a minor, and when the mother’s life is endangered. A 2015 change left women who obtain a doctor-performed abortion free from criminal penalty, while doctors can still face up to a year in prison.
Alois has served as regent since 2004. He first pledged to veto abortion liberalization in 2011. Voters rejected a similar initiative in 2012, with 52 percent opposed.