Obstruction

After the constitutionalisation of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in June, LSAP MPs Taina Bofferding and Paulette Lenert are working to prevent the obstruction sometimes exercised during the abortion process. Bofferding has filed a bill to introduce a "delit d'entrave", an offence of obstruction, modelled on a French law that has existed since 1993.[1]

The Grand Duchy has long waited to legislate on this subject. In 1994, around the same time France was passing its own obstruction law, a Luxembourg district court ruled on a divorce request from a woman who had been expelled from the marital home because she had an abortion. The court found that "the husband's grudge was conceivable under such circumstances" and that "his behaviour was nothing injurious to conjugal honour", and therefore the wife's divorce request was unjustified.[1]

In June, the constitution was amended to protect abortion rights. The amendment passed with 51 votes. Now the next step: making it a criminal offence to obstruct someone's access to abortion. The French law, passed in 1993, criminalises obstructing abortion access through threats, pressure, or interference. Luxembourg is getting the same law, 33 years later. In 1994, a woman in Luxembourg had an abortion and was thrown out of her home, and the court said the husband's grudge was conceivable and his behaviour was not injurious to conjugal honour, and her divorce request was unjustified. The woman had an abortion. The man threw her out. The court sided with the man. That was 1994. The constitution was amended in June 2026. The obstruction law is being introduced now. The 33 years between the French law and the Luxembourg bill are the same 33 years between the court ruling and the constitutional amendment.[1]