SPUC has slammed the European Union (EU) after MEPs voted 378-255 in favour of a resolution deeming abortion a fundamental human right.
SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Director of Communications, said: “This resolution is a shameless and illiberal move to impose abortion ideology across Europe and isolate pro-life nations such as Poland and Malta.”
The motion, drafted by the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (CWRGE), had already been approved by the Committee, 27 to 6. Yesterday, it was ratified by the EU Parliament.
The EU Resolution does not legally require its 27 Member States to provide abortion, but instead seeks to pressure pro-life nations to change their laws.
The report, drafted under the term “sexual and reproductive health and rights” (SRHR), states that individuals should “have their bodily integrity and personal autonomy respected”. Vitally, the CWRGE’s definition of reproductive rights extends to “safe and legal abortion services”.
The CWRGE also labelled pro-life legislation “a violation of human rights and a form of gender-based violence”.
The resolution has called on EU Member States, as well as EU bodies and agencies, to “promote access” to abortion under “SRHR services”, and to “remove all barriers impeding full access to SRHR” – this includes treating “conscientious objection” as “denial of medical care”, hence removing the right to objection.
It could also be used to exert even greater pressure on nations in the developing world to overturn laws restricting abortion.
“A grotesque distortion of justice”
SPUC’s Liam Gibson, condemning the EU resolution, said:
“In a grotesque distortion of justice, the EU resolution considers violations of reproductive rights as a form of violence against women... Yet at the same time, abortion, which is an act of lethal violence directed against an unborn child, is vaunted as a human right.”
Mr Robinson added: “As the European Centre for Law & Justice (ECLJ) has stated, there is no ‘right to abortion’ in international law or treaty, nor any European conventions or charters.
“Rather, the CWRGE, underwritten by the EU, has hijacked human rights, as well as women’s rights, to promote an abortion agenda that tramples the human right to life.
"Where is the EU’s respect for the ‘bodily integrity and personal autonomy’ of the unborn? Abortion is a violent act that destroys the body, without care or concern for the autonomy of the victim.
“The blatant hypocrisy of this shameless EU resolution is sickening.”
Brave Poland
Last year, Poland, an EU Member State, banned almost all abortion, leading to an outpouring of support from SPUC supporters, as well as international pro-life leaders, including SPUC’s John Smeaton, applauding Poland’s commitment to protect unborn children.
The decision was in accordance with a CBOS poll in which 75% of Polish people said that abortion is “always wrong and can never be justified”.
The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights expressly prohibits eugenic practices such as abortion on grounds of foetal disability. Despite this, the EU has repeatedly condemned the ruling by the Polish constitutional tribunal that banned eugenics abortion.
Poland has stood up to the EU on abortion in the past; in 2007, for example, Roman Giertych, Poland’s then deputy prime minister, spoke at the World Congress of Families in Warsaw, stating that the Polish government would not agree to the demands of the European Union to provide abortion, despite intimidation from the EU.
Mr Robinson added: “This most recent EU resolution is intended as another act of intimidation directed at such countries as Poland, Europe’s leading pro-life nation. The EU should respect the national sovereignty of Poland, which will not be bullied into betraying its unborn and the wishes of its own people.”
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