Women’s Right to Abortion in the Light of the EU VAT System

• Current advancements in medicine, science, and technology, resulting in innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, the development of new drugs, and the recentering of medical practices on patients and out-of-hospital treatment, have resulted in significant transformations in healthcare and well-being procedures. In this context, medical abortion, or medication abortion, stands as a notable breakthrough in reproductive health technology, as it replaces invasive surgical procedures and all they entail with the administration of drugs in the form of pills or tablets. According to medical literature, medication abortion is safer, decreases maternal mortality, and has an efficacy rate of over 98% in terminating early unwanted pregnancies. Simply by providing an alternative, one that removes surgery, delays, and any of the personal, social, and economic consequences that are firmly tied to traditional procedures, medical abortion helps ensure that a woman’s sexual and reproductive health rights remain upheld, and that more timely and more informed choices can be made.Medical services are eligible for VAT exemptions under the provisions of the VAT Directive.42 Article 132(1)(b) of the VAT Directive specifically exempts hospital and medical care, as well as closely related activities performed by public bodies, and art. 132(1)(c) specifically establishes exemptions for services rendered by medical and paramedical professionals in the course of their professions. Moreover, Annex III of the VAT Directive outlines a list of goods and services that qualify for reduced VAT rates under Article 98. Point (3) of Annex III includes pharmaceutical products utilized for healthcare, disease prevention, medical and veterinary treatment, as well as contraceptive and sanitary products. Considering that surgical abortion is considered a healthcare service and that the drugs used in medical abortion are classified as pharmaceutical products, both these procedures to terminate pregnancy fall within the scope of the VAT Directive.This paper investigates the regulatory framework governing abortion within thescope of EU VAT, covering both surgical and pharmaceutical procedures, to assess whether or not any disparity in the VAT treatment between these two approaches exists that could potentially lead to gender discrimination or other types of discrimination. To do so, it first examines abortion within the international and European human rights framework from a gender perspective. Such an analysis is then used to scope the EU VAT legal frameworks that are applicable to medical services and pharmaceutical products, and to identify their essential characteristics as outlined in the EU VAT Directive and interpreted by the European Court of Justice. Then the paper discusses the provision of abortion, both surgical and medical, in the broader context of the EU VAT framework, evaluating the compatibility of the EU VAT treatment of abortion with human rights principles and those descending from the primary legal framework that safeguards women’s rights and the right to health. Finally, the paper explores potential avenues for future research in this area and presents concluding remarks summarizing the findings.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Juridik -- Juridik och samhälle (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Law -- Law and Society (hsv//eng)

Keyword

EU VAT Law

Access to Abortion

Women Rights

Gender Discrimination

Rättsvetenskap

Law

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)