What if the King Said No?

Liechtenstein, abortion and the moral purpose of monarchy

Liechtenstein’s Hereditary Prince Alois has pledged to prevent the legalisation of abortion in the principality, saying he would use his veto should a proposal permitting abortion during the first trimester win public approval.

Prince Alois, who serves as Liechtenstein’s regent, made his position clear in a June 17 interview with the Liechtenstein newspaper Vaterland, as the campaign to liberalise the country’s abortion laws gathers support.

There is something particularly striking about looking at Liechtenstein from Britain. While its hereditary prince is prepared to say publicly that he would use his constitutional authority to prevent the legalisation of abortion, the British Crown has long since retreated from any comparable intervention in the moral legislation of the nation.

Britain was among the earlier Western European countries to liberalise its abortion laws with the Abortion Act 1967. What was presented at the time as a limited reform has developed into a regime under which abortion is permitted in Great Britain in most circumstances up to 24 weeks, with later abortions lawful on certain specified grounds. In practice this has become abortion on demand. Hundreds of thousands of abortions now take place each year in England and Wales, and many people are pushing for Abortion up to birth.

And now Parliament has been considering another profound change: the legalisation of assisted dying for terminally ill adults. Once again, legislators are being asked to cross a boundary that previous generations regarded as fundamental, this time concerning the deliberate assistance of a person in ending his or her own life.