The European Parliament (EP) approved this Thursday, April 11, a resolution requesting the inclusion of abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFREU) of the European Union (EU).

The initiative was approved by 336 votes in favor, 163 against and 39 abstentions. It proposes an amendment to Article 3 of the Charter to include abortion as a “fundamental right,” calls for limiting conscientious objection to doctors, and prevents EU funding of pro-life and pro-family associations.

The resolution is not binding. In order for the amendment to the CFREU to become a reality, it is necessary that the 27 EU Member States approve it unanimously, passing first through their respective Parliaments.

The amendments proposed by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ERC), led by Margarita de la Pisa, MEP of Vox and member of Political Network for Values (PNfV), and the one presented by Identidad y Democracia (ID) were rejected.

The approval of the resolution counted with practically all the votes of the left (including the social democrats) and the liberals, as well as with 43 votes of the European People’s Party (EPP). ERC and ID voted as a bloc against (except for 2 members of the former and one of the latter). Here you can see how each party bloc voted.

This is not the first time such a resolution has been voted on; in July 2022 another one was passed with 324 votes in favor, 155 against and 38 abstentions.

What does the resolution call for?

The text of the resolution passed Thursday in the EP:

• Affirms that abortion constitutes a “fundamental right.”
• Calls on the Council of the European Union (CUE) to amend the CDFUE to incorporate “sexual and reproductive rights”, explicitly including the “right to safe and legal abortion”,
• Urges Member States to fully decriminalize abortion through national legislation,
• Demands that Poland and Malta “immediately” repeal laws and other measures that prohibit and restrict abortion,
• Instructs the European Commission (EC) not to fund pro-life and pro-family associations, which are labeled as “anti-rights” organizations,
• Directs the EU to give more financial support to pro-abortion and pro-gender associations and initiatives and to give them political backing by enabling a “civic space” to protect them;
• Condemns the right to conscientious objection by health professionals,
• Demands that abortion methods and procedures be mandatory content in the curricula for doctors and medical students in the EU,
• Calls on the EU to make the recognition of abortion as a “right” a key priority in its negotiations.

The proposed amendment to Article 3 of the CFREU modifies the title of that paragraph: “Right to the integrity of the person and to bodily autonomy”.

And adds the following paragraph: “2a. Everyone has the right to bodily autonomy, to free, informed, full and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and to all related healthcare services without discrimination, including access to safe and legal abortion”.

The proposed amendment confronts Article 2 of the same Charter and Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which explicitly recognize the right to life. Read the full resolution here.

A reaction with Macron’s mark

Thursday’s vote is part of a reaction against the progressive advance to the protection of the right of nascent life that is registered in various countries of Europe, Africa and America.

The text itself says so, it is presented as a reason for the initiative that, “around the world, regressive forces and ultra-conservative and extreme right-wing religious actors are trying to undo decades of progress in human rights and impose a harmful worldview on gender roles in families and in public life”.

For the authors of the resolution “these movements and attacks are closely connected to the trend of authoritarian rollbacks on global democracy” and, according to them “this represents a clear threat to the rule of law in Europe”.

The initiative was voted at the last minute in the penultimate plenary session of the EP before its dissolution in view of the European elections to be held next June. The note released by the EP Press Room acknowledges that the resolution entered into guideline by the incentive generated by the insertion of abortion as a “right” in the Constitution of France.

President Emmanuel Macron, the main promoter of the constitutional amendment in France, asked the EP in January 2022 precisely the amendment to the CDFUE that was voted this Thursday in Brussels.

And a month ago Macron said that the constitutional shielding of abortion in France was only the “beginning of a fight”. He assured that he would lead that fight in favor of abortion in Europe because “reactionary forces are attacking women’s rights” in various parts of the world.

Symbolic and reactive, but not inoffensive

The authors of the resolution know that it is very difficult to achieve a modification of the CFREU on a controversial issue such as abortion, it requires going a long way in search of the full consensus of the 27 Member States.

However, the resolution is not inoffensive. It contains specific guidance to EU executive bodies to actively promote abortion and to silence or ” suffocate” those who oppose it.

It calls on the EC to “use of all available tools to ensure that organisations working against gender equality and women’s rights including reproductive rights do not receive EU funding.” The justification for this is that funding of pro-life and pro-family groups has registered significant growth in the world.

And it requests that the EU enable and politically support a “civic space” for the protection of pro-abortion and pro-gender groups (homosexuals, transgender, etc.) and finance their initiatives.

It also asks EU diplomats to make abortion “rights” a “priority in negotiations within international institutions and in other multilateral forums such as the Council of Europe and the UN”.

It further suggests that conscientious objection to abortion should be eliminated.

The orientations given in the resolution, as a whole, propitiate an adverse environment and point towards a situation similar to criminalization for citizens, politicians and organizations that defend the right to life from conception and the protection of the natural family, consecrated in the UDHR and the CFREU.

[/]

(Photo by Erick Vidal / European Union 2024. Voting session in the European Parliament, April 11, 2024).