Image – Shutterstock: Berlaymont Building in Brussels, European Commission HQ
The European Parliament’s Women’s Rights Committee has voted in favour of a draft resolution urging the European Commission to support the controversial “My Voice, My Choice” Citizens’ Initiative. The proposal, adopted on Wednesday 5 November with 26 votes in favour and 12 against, seeks to expand access to abortion across all European Union member states and introduce EU-level funding to pay for it.
The resolution calls for the creation of “an opt-in financial mechanism” open to all EU countries, using EU funds “to ensure solidarity.” According to a European Parliament press release, this mechanism would allow countries to offer abortions to anyone who “still lacks access to safe and legal abortion,” in their respective member states. It would, for example, allow a Polish woman to seek an EU-funded abortion in neighbouring Germany.
While supporters of the initiative claim it promotes equality and health, pro-life advocates have condemned the move as a step towards normalising abortion and destroying national sovereignty. They warn that such measures undermine the efforts of countries like Malta or Poland who offer real help to women, without pushing them towards traumatic abortion.
The European Union should prioritise protecting both mothers and their unborn children, offering practical help such as financial aid, childcare, housing, maternity leave, and employment support for families in need – as is being fought for in the most recent One of Us petition.
Many conservatives and family policy experts highlight Europe’s serious demographic challenges, with declining birth rates and ageing populations threatening economic and social stability. They stress that rather than promoting abortion as a universal right, Europe should focus on building a culture that values motherhood, strengthens families, and ensures that every child is welcomed into life.
The committee’s decision is an insult to the capability of EU nations to set their own public policy and represent their own citizens, and many who believe the EU should not interfere in sensitive moral and ethical matters are feeling trapped by the proposal.
SPUC CEO, John Deighan, says “It is an absolute outrage and an assault on democracy to try to undermine the laws of other states, especially when it is going to be used to undermine states which better respect human life. The merchants of death at the EU seem determined to eradicate as many lives as possible and push our continent further down the path of population collapse. The measure requires the citizens of Europe to awaken to the deadly culture that their political classes are determined to enforce on them.”
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