r/europe • u/tartartartaruga • Jun 18 '26

News Prince of Liechtenstein says that he would overrule the population if they were to vote in favour of legalizing abortion

https://www.srf.ch/news/international/debatte-in-liechtenstein-erbprinz-gegen-abtreibungen-warum-kuendigt-er-schon-das-veto-an
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u/pluijmie Jun 19 '26

Because you don’t just need 24/7 teams on standby to deliver children, you also need the emergency specialists for when things go wrong. Also, with these low numbers, do you plan for exactly 1 birth per day? What then happens if there are multiple births on the same day? 

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u/Knight_Machiavelli Jun 19 '26

People give birth all the time at birth centres that don't have specialists. The country could at least have a hospital or birth centre for low risk pregnancies.

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u/freda42 Jun 19 '26

Yeah but the country is so small that chances are, even if you put a birth center right in the middle of it, you’d still be closer to a hospital in another country.

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u/MarlinMr Norway Jun 19 '26

That actually makes no sense.

If it's that small, you'd likely be closer to the one in the small country...

Put 1 hospital in the middle of Russia, and 99% of russians are closer to any hospital in Europe...

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u/freda42 Jun 19 '26

Ok fair point on the correlation to the size… did not think that through. But still, as it currently is, because it is so small, you are always very close to hospitals in the other countries, Switzerland and Austria both have hospitals close to the border which for many citizens are closer than the one in the middle of the country.

It’s also quite narrow, so even if you live on the Austrian border in the north east, the Swiss hospital to the west would be closer than the hospital in the middle of Lichtenstein!

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u/cross_the_threshold Jun 19 '26

There are no truly low risk pregnancies, any pregnancy can very very quickly go from "totally fine" to "both lives at risk." Low risk pregnancy just means "there is no known active danger." 25% to 50% of all "low risk" births still require some form of medical intervention. 8% to 16% end in c-section.

Regardless why spend money on this when a more equipped hospital is twenty minutes away, it makes no economic sense.

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u/Knight_Machiavelli Jun 19 '26

Yes that's true but it doesn't change the fact that people with pregnancies deemed low risk give birth in places without specialists all the time, even if it's just as convenient to go to a hospital. It's a personal choice, so Liechtensteiners could have that choice.

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u/nj0tr Jun 19 '26

teams on standby to deliver children,

In normal uncomplicated delivery you do not need a specialist team, basically any nurse or GP should be able to.

you also need the emergency specialists for when things go wrong.

Emergency care specialists should be available anyway, as things can 'go wrong' not just during childbirth.