European Parliament Votes in Favor of Abortion-On-Demand as a Human Right

The European Parliament have adopted a resolution that labels abortion a “human right” and attacks the conscience rights of doctors who refuse to perform abortions.

The resolution “on the situation of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the EU” calls on EU member states to decriminalize all abortions and to allow abortion-on-demand in order to bring their laws “into line with international human rights standards.” A similar resolution was narrowly defeated in 2013.

Abortion advocates were militant in their speeches during a heated debate and resorted to violent and fearful rhetoric.

“We feminists know that we have to fight for the right to rule of over our body and our sexuality,” said MEP Malin Björk, of the Left group. She called anyone who opposed the resolution “misogynistic.”

“There is no gender equality without the right to universal and safe abortion. There is no rule of law without respecting full sexual and reproductive health and rights. There are no human rights without the right to abortion. And without these rights, the union does not exist,” said Polish Member of the European Parliament Sylwia Iwona Spurek.

The resolution, prepared by Croatian socialist Predrag Fred Matić, doesn’t just promote abortion. It attacks the conscience rights of doctors who refuse to perform abortions and calls on EU members to remove “all limitations” on abortion during the COVID-19 emergency.

The vice-president of the Parliament, Finnish MEP Heidi Hautala, explained the reason for this in the debate.  “If [sexual and reproductive health and rights] are not guaranteed for all, they can take them away from any of us.”

Some abortion supporters openly voiced their opposition to the Catholic Church.

“It is high time to end the church’s influence on healthcare. Women across Europe must have separation of church and state on these issues,” said Irish politician Frances Fitzgerald of the European People’s Party, also known as Christian Democrats.

The Conference of European Bishops and the Polish Bishops’ Conference both issued statements against the resolution that were republished in articles on the official Vatican News agency.

The resolution also endorses “comprehensive sexuality education” and promotes the most extreme elements of the LGBT agenda.

It calls for bans on any kind of therapy to help individuals with same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria to cope with or overcome their condition, and it calls on the World Health Organization to change its definition of infertility to ensure it applies to same-sex couples and men and women who identify as transgender.

“In certain circumstances transgender men and non-binary persons may also undergo pregnancy,” the resolution states, adding that they should be provided government funded maternal health care.

Most of the opponents of the resolution insisted that abortion, and health policy more broadly, should not be subject to EU interference, since the EU treaty leaves these issues up to individual member states to decide.

Several pro-life MEPs also made passionate calls for protections for mothers and children in the womb from abortion.

“This resolution does not protect women. It degrades women’s dignity. It swindles and subjugates women to a false liberty that does not allow women to respect their own body and the miracle of life that women carry within,” said member of the parliament, or MEP, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, on behalf of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group of parliamentarians.

Italian MEP Silvia Baldassare of the Lega party, a doctor turned politician, called the resolution “absurd” and a “new low” for the parliament. She complained that the resolution speaks of government funding for abortion but does not address maternal health, family policy, or other measures to help women avoid abortion.

“What does the EU do to protect women from abortion?” she asked.

Despite the spirited opposition to the resolution, it passed comfortably with 378 votes in favor and 255 against. While the resolution is not binding, its recommendations can be incorporated into the policies of the powerful European Commission.

During the debate EU Commissioner Helena Dalli acknowledged that health policy was an exclusive competence of EU member states, but she insisted that EU member states “must respect the fundamental rights that bind them under international law.”

Dalli said “all commission services will closely examine them (the recommendations in the resolution) to see where we can include them in our policies.”

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