The Austrian Supreme Court (OGH) ruled on a September 2026 insurance dispute that self-employed mothers who undergo medically indicated pregnancy terminations are legally entitled to maternity financial support, overturning prior lower court decisions that denied claims based on infant weight limits. The case centers on an applicant whose pregnancy was terminated at the 25th week due to medical necessity, after which she experienced a two-day induced labor, postpartum recovery, lochia, and lactation suppression.
Social Insurance Agency Denied Support Based on Midwifery Act Classifications
The Social Insurance Agency of the Self-Employed (SVS) previously refused to pay maternity allowance to the mother. According to reporting by Benedikt Kommenda in Die Presse, the agency relied on the Austrian Midwifery Act, which draws a legal distinction between miscarriages and stillbirths based entirely on fetal weight. Under that administrative guideline, a deceased infant without signs of life qualifies as a stillbirth—and triggers birth-related financial benefits—only if the fetus weighs at least 500 grams. Because the fetus in this specific case weighed 362 grams, the SVS classified the event as a miscarriage and rejected the financial claim.
Supreme Court Reverses Lower Court Rulings and Affirms Equal Protection
The legal dispute moved through multiple levels of the Austrian court system before reaching the Supreme Court (10 ObS 43/26k). Initially, the Vienna Labor and Social Court ruled in favor of the mother, determining that her physical vulnerability and need for protection matched those of a mother carrying a heavier infant. However, the Higher Regional Court of Vienna reversed that decision, upholding the classification of the event as a miscarriage. The Supreme Court ultimately set aside the appellate ruling, concluding that falling below the 500-gram weight threshold does not invalidate social insurance claims when specific medical circumstances establish the severe physical trauma of a stillbirth.
Financial Compensation and Legal Precedent Established
The Supreme Court found that the substantial physical and physiological strain experienced by the mother during the pregnancy termination and subsequent labor matched the physical toll of delivering a child weighing more than 500 grams. As a result of the OGH ruling, the SVS must disburse maternity financial support covering the statutory 16-week recovery period plus the day of delivery, totaling 7,669.72 euros.
