The vote on the Bill on reproductive health fails again

2024-05-23 14:27:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Assembly of Kosovo has failed to vote on the second reading of the draft law on reproductive health (IVF) during a session on Thursday, May 23, due to the absence of deputies during the voting.

For several months now, the vote on this draft law has been stuck on the fourth amendment proposed by the deputy of the Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV), Visar Korenica.

The fourth amendment did not even pass in Thursday's session, as four deputies voted for it, two against and 55 of the 120 deputies of the Kosovo Assembly abstained.

For several months now, Korenica has requested that three paragraphs should be removed from the legislation, which stipulate that the right to reproduction also belongs to individuals, in addition to married couples (husband and wife). As a reference to individuals, he has mentioned unmarried women and same-sex partners.

The deputy of the Vetëvendosje Movement, Visar Korenica, presented the fifth amendment in the May 23 session, requesting that in the draft law it should not be the individual who decides to have a child, but the decision of the couple.

"Only married couples have the right to decide with their will to have children, and the individual or the unmarried woman is denying the child the right to have a father and a mother", said Korenica, who once again opposed this draft law for the form how it is currently.

Only 59 MPs took part in the vote for this amendment, and in this situation, the Speaker of the Assembly, Glauk Konjufca, asked not to continue until there is "coordination between the parliamentary groups".

This is the fifth time in a row that the ruling party tries to vote the amendments proposed by Vetëvendosje deputy, Visar Korenica.

For the last time, the Assembly tried to approve these amendments in the session of March 7, but failed due to the lack of quorum.

In October last year, after many efforts, the Assembly managed to approve this draft law in the first reading with 63 votes for, one against and four abstentions.

This legislation enables even unmarried women to give birth to children through the method of assisted fertilization, known as IVF, in public clinics.

This law was strongly opposed by a part of the deputies. According to the draft law, even unmarried women, over 18 years old, who are in good health and social condition and are capable of "fertilization and parental care" have the right to use IVF.

Kosovo has a special ward for IVF in the Clinic of Gynecology at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo (QKUK). But, it is not functional as it does not have the necessary equipment. For the equipment of this department, the Ministry of Health has allocated 1.5 million euros.