Europe – My Voice, My Choice: For Safe And Accessible Abortion

10/04/2024
European Union
Commission registration number: ECI(2024)000004

Objectives
The “My Voice, My Choice” campaign offers the people of Europe the chance to make women's lives freer, safer, and better; wherever they live in our union, whatever conditions they may find themselves in.

The lack of access to abortion in many parts of Europe not only puts women at risk of physical harm but also puts undue economic and mental stress on women and families, often on the margins of society that can afford it the least.

…To change this we are asking the European Commission to - in the spirit of solidarity - submit a proposal for financial support to Member States that would be able to perform safe termination of pregnancies for anyone in Europe who still lacks access to safe and legal abortion.

Continued: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2024/000004_en

10.04.2024

European Citizens' Initiative on abortion

European Commission

European Union

My Voice My Choice campaign

50 years after the former Yugoslavia protected abortion rights, that legacy is under threat

By Darko Bandic And Jovana Gec, The Associated Press
Mar 27, 2024

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — With vigils outside clinics, marches drawing thousands and groups of men kneeling to pray in public squares, religious and neo-conservative groups have been ramping up pressure to ban abortions in staunchly Catholic Croatia.

The fierce debate has fueled divisions in the European Union nation of about 3.9 million people where abortion remains legal but access to the procedure is often denied, sending many women to neighboring Slovenia to end a pregnancy.

The movement is in stark contrast to Croatia’s recent past, when it was part of the former Yugoslavia, a Communist-run country that protected abortion rights in its constitution 50 years ago.

Continued: https://halifax.citynews.ca/2024/03/27/50-years-after-the-former-yugoslavia-protected-abortion-rights-that-legacy-is-under-threat/

Why is abortion still illegal in Malta in 2024?

By MARIA SORAYA RODRÍGUEZ RAMOS
14. FEB 2024

On Wednesday (14 February) around 70 brave abortion activists from Malta will gather in Brussels. Their mission? Demanding that the right to their own bodies be respected. This bold move shines a light on a crucial issue that needs immediate attention — we must make sure that the right to abortion becomes part of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Because while the European Union often takes pride in championing gender equality around the world, such as promoting global policies to end female genital mutilation, increase educational opportunities for girls, and eradicate female poverty, yet within a country in our own territory, women are suffering under misogynist laws.

Continued: https://euobserver.com/opinion/158075

14.02.2024

Charter of Fundamental Rights

Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality

Ireland allowed mental health abortion exception 30 years ago

Ireland has protected the right to seek an abortion because of the risk of suicide since 1992

By Sandhya Raman

Posted December 7, 2023

While 18 U.S. states have essentially banned abortion for pregnant people facing a mental health crisis, Ireland, which had one of the strictest abortion laws in the European Union until 2018, has taken a different approach.

Ireland has protected the right to seek an abortion because of the risk of suicide since 1992. While more than two-thirds of U.S. states have enacted laws that include mental health among the medical reasons a woman can have an abortion, Ireland protected exceptions for risk of suicide long before the country voted in 2018 to repeal its amendment banning abortion.

Continued: https://rollcall.com/2023/12/07/07irelandsidebar/

07.12.2023

mental health and abortion

Sandhya Raman

suicide risk Irish law

EU Parliament condemns U.S. abortion ruling, calls for human rights safeguards

Jul 7, 2022
By Raf Cassert, Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly condemned the end of constitutional protections for abortion in the United States and called for such safeguards to be enshrined in the EU’s fundamental rights charter.

In a 324-155 vote with 38 abstentions, European Parliament lawmakers adopted a resolution that crystalized the anger seen in many of the EU’s 27 member countries since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its ruling on June 24.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/eu-parliament-condemns-u-s-abortion-ruling-calls-for-human-rights-safeguards

07.07.2022

Featured

News

abortion rights safeguards

Europe – Right to safe and legal abortion must be safeguarded, MEPs demand

MEPs condemn the backsliding in women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide including in the US and some EU countries, calling for safe access to abortion.

Comunicado de imprensa
June 3, 2022

Following a plenary debate on Wednesday, MEPs adopted a resolution on Thursday by 364 votes in favour, 154 against and 37 abstentions reminding the United States Supreme Court that it is vital to uphold the landmark case of Roe v Wade (1973), which protects the right to abortion in the US Constitution.

They urge US President Biden and his administration to ensure access to safe and legal abortion. MEPs reiterate their call on the Government of Texas to swiftly repeal Senate Bill 8 and call on several other US states with similar laws to bring their legislation in line with internationally protected women’s human rights.

Continued: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/pt/press-room/20220603IPR32144/right-to-safe-and-legal-abortion-must-be-safeguarded-meps-demand

03.06.2022

sexual and reproductive health and rights

EUROPEAN UNION – Will access to safe, legal abortion finally become a right in the European Union?

JANUARY 28, 2022
International Campaign for Safe Abortion

A number of Members of the European Parliament have been pushing to include the right to safe, legal abortion in the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. But that push did not start only on the day after French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to open this debate in the EU Council. In fact, the European Parliament had already addressed this question on 24 June 2021, calling on the European Union (meaning all its member states), to ensure the right to legal and safe abortion in a push to improve women’s sexual and reproductive health in response to Covid-19. A non-binding resolution was passed by 378 to 255 votes at that time. Now it’s back on the table. But would the vote be by each country, or by their MEPs?

Continued: https://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/news/european-union-will-access-to-safe-legal-abortion-finally-become-a-right-in-the-european-union/

28.01.2022

Featured

News

Charter of Fundamental Rights

EU parliament condemns Polish abortion law

The European Union parliament has condemned Poland’s recent near-total ban on abortions and called on the Polish government to make sure it no longer leads to the death of pregnant women

By The Associated Press
11 November 2021

BRUSSELS -- The European Union’ parliament on Thursday condemned Poland’s recent near-total ban on abortions and called on the Polish government to make sure it no longer leads to the death of pregnant women.

The condemnation came following news that a woman died of septic shock in her 22nd week of pregnancy after doctors failed to perform an abortion and waited for the fetus to die.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/eu-parliament-condemns-polish-abortion-law-81108976

11.11.2021

Poland Constitutional Tribunal

How does Texas’ abortion law stack up with the rest of the developed world?

Sep 4, 2021
By Rob Picheta, CNN

Texas' ban on abortion beyond six weeks —
before many women even know they have conceived — has widened the reproductive
health gap between the United States and other leading democracies.

The U.S. Supreme Court formally denied a request from Texas abortion providers
to freeze the new law on Wednesday, even though it violates Roe v. Wade, which
legalized abortion across the U.S. prior to viability, which happens at around
24 weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.koco.com/article/how-does-texas-abortion-law-stack-up-with-the-rest-of-the-developed-world/37478205

Europe’s underground abortion network

When terminations are banned in Poland, Polish women buy train tickets

Feb 27th 2021
The Economist

Wander around any Polish city and the same phone number pops up on an array of unlikely surfaces. It is scrawled on bus stops and billboards. It can be daubed on the side of a church. Head online and the same number (+48 222 922 597) appears in people’s usernames. Those who dial it are put through to Kobiety w Sieci (“Women on the Net”), a group that offers women information on how to get abortions. In a country where providing terminations is now, in effect, illegal, it is a useful number to have.

In October Poland’s constitutional court struck down a law allowing abortion in cases of fetal abnormality. Of the 1,000 or so legal abortions in Poland per year before the ban, nearly all were in this category. Now, abortion is limited to cases of rape or to save a mother’s life. This fulfils a long-held dream of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party to clamp down on abortions. Activists responded by turning cities into a gonzo Yellow Pages.

Continued: https://www.economist.com/europe/2021/02/27/europes-underground-abortion-network