Sasko: Abortion Pill Not Priority Right Now

Bratislava, November 28 (TASR) - The abortion pill is not the priority of the day, claimed Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) in his statement presented to Parliament during Question Time by Transport Minister Jozef Raz Jr. (a Smer-SD nominee) on Thursday. Sasko said this in response to a question by MP Viera Kalmarova (PS), who inquired as to whether the minister will continue the efforts of his predecessor Zuzana Dolinkova (Voice-SD) and sign a directive greenlighting the medicinal form of abortion. "We're dealing with more urgent matters today, such as energy prices, aid for the unemployed and the construction of new hospitals. I'm also busy with the issue of how to stabilise the Slovak health-care sector after previous governments. The abortion pill is not the priority of the day. Let's focus on having children born into stable social families, with good conditions for their development as of birth, and then the issue of the abortion pill won't be so weighty even from your point of view," stated Sasko. Back in June, ex-minister Dolinkova claimed that the introduction of a medicinal form of abortion was supposed to be addressed by the coalition council after the summer break. She added that the issue had been consulted extensively with the community of experts, who voiced support for its introduction and agreed that the pill should be taken exclusively under professional oversight at health-care facilities and only up to the seventh week of pregnancy. mf/df