EU commissioner’s women’s health vision skips over abortion issue

A new EU vision for the future of women’s rights skipped over the issue of abortion, which remains controversial across Europe despite being widely available.

Emma Pirnay, Euractiv
Mar 7, 2025

A new “roadmap” for the future of women's rights from the European Commission's equality commissioner, Hadja Lahbib, lays out her vision for women’s health. But a big question mark hangs over abortion.

Lahbib promised to improve equal access for medical care for women, including more diverse clinical trials, diagnostics and treatments during her Friday presentation of the European Commission's Roadmap for Women’s Rights.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/eu-commissioners-womens-health-vision-skips-over-abortion-issue/

07.03.2025

News

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

European Commission's Roadmap for Women’s Rights

sexual and reproductive rights

EU decoded: Should access to abortion be harmonised within EU?

By Isabel Marques da Silva
28/01/2025

For more than 60 years, Europe has led a global trend towards legal access to abortion. Fears of a reversal of this trend have led to the campaign “My Choice, My Voice”, a citizens’ initiative calling for action from the European Commission.

The Commission is obliged to formally respond to the initiative's demand for a proposal to "ensure that all EU citizens, regardless of nationality or residence, have access to safe and legal abortion services", as the petition exceeded the legal threshold of 1 million signatures collected from more than seven member states, in this case 15 member states were covered.

Continued: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/01/28/eu-decoded-should-access-to-abortion-be-harmonised-within-eu

Anti-abortion activists set to target women at clinics in Italy as new bill approved

Nearly two thirds of gynaecologists in Italy refuse to carry out abortions, according to government statistics

By Joshua Stein
April 27, 2024

Activists opposed to abortion in Italy are expected to ramp up their targeting of clinics after being “emboldened” by an amendment to the law. Pro-abortion activists fear the bill could endanger women across Italy, and lead to harassment as they try to access information and support.

Anti-abortion activists have routinely attended clinics and pressured women to abandon abortions in three separate Italian regions – Piedmont, Veneto and Lombardy – where the local law has already been changed to allow their presence, according to Elena Caruso, an expert in Italian abortion law and fellow at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Now, anti-abortion activists are worried that could spread to other regions.

Continued: https://inews.co.uk/news/world/anti-abortion-activists-target-women-clinics-italy-bill-approved-3027066

Labour MEP makes plea for abortion to become fundamental right in EU Charter

Cyrus Engerer calls for the introduction of abortion to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in Brussels debate that follows French constitutional enshrinement

14 March 2024
by Matthew Vella

Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer billed himself the first Maltese in Brussels to have spoken in favour of women’s full bodily autonomy, in an impassioned intervention to a debate calling for abortion to become a fundamental right in the European Charter of fundamental rights.

Engerer, who has not yet committed himself to a re-election campaign for the 2024 elections, quoted various experiences of anonymous women who had to carry out illegal abortions in Malta due to domestic violence, rape, or illness.

Continued: https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/ewropej/128109/labour_mep_makes_plea_for_abortion_to_become_fundamental_right_in_eu_charter

14.03.2024

News

Cyrus Engerer

Elisa Ferreira

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

European Charter of Fundamental Rights

Abortion rights are featuring in this year’s European election campaign in a way we’ve not seen before

March 13, 2024
Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén

The recent landmark decision in France to inscribe the right to abortion in the constitution serves to protect the law that first legalised abortion in the country in 1975. This law – the so-called Veil law – was championed by Simone Veil, one of France’s most admired and respected political figures, and an icon of the women’s rights movement.

In 1974, Veil, a magistrate who had been asked by French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing to serve as health minister in his government, delivered a momentous speech. She presented the public health case for the decriminalisation of abortion to the National Assembly, which at the time was composed almost entirely of men.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/abortion-rights-are-featuring-in-this-years-european-election-campaign-in-a-way-weve-not-seen-before-225714

13.03.2024

Commentary

abortion law reform

Alternative for Germany

Emmanuel Macron

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Simone Veil

Simone Veil Pact

Valéry Giscard d’Estaing

Europe’s liberals, Greens say abortion must be a right in EU charter

10 Mar, 2024

Senior figures from the Green and liberal factions in the European Parliament have spoken in favour of including the right to abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, echoing a call by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Green parliamentary group leader Terry Reintke and Valérie Hayer, who is the leader of the liberal Renew group, spoke to Germany’s RND media group for an interview published on Sunday. “The right to safe abortion belongs in the EU Charter as a fundamental right,” said Reintke, a German politician who has served as a member of the European Parliament since 2014.

Continued; https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3254849/europes-liberals-greens-say-abortion-must-be-right-eu-charter

10.03.2024

News

Emmanuel Macron

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

France’s Macron wants to make abortion a right at EU level

Reuters
March 8, 2024

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that he wants the European Union to guarantee the right to an abortion in its Charter of Fundamental Rights.

…"We're going to lead this fight in our continent, in our Europe, where reactionary forces are attacking women's rights before attacking the rights of minorities," he told the crowd attending the ceremony in Paris, in front of the Justice Ministry. "This is why I want to enshrine that guaranteed freedom to abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union."

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/frances-macron-wants-make-abortion-right-eu-level-2024-03-08/

08.03.2024

Charter of Fundamental Rights

Emmanual Macron

enshrining abortion rights in constitution

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Women’s rights activists launch effort to expand abortion rights to EU level

European NGOs said they would launch a new initiative aimed at advancing reproductive rights.

By Lauren Chadwick
March 5, 2024

Women's rights activists across Europe are joining forces to push for a dedicated funding mechanism in the European Union to make sure that women in the bloc have access to abortion.

The movement called "My Voice, My Choice" was launched in Slovenia on Tuesday and brought together activists from several European countries including Spain, Finland, Poland, France, Croatia, and Ireland.

"We are organising at the European level to push the abortion issue forward," Marta Lempart, one of the leaders of the Polish Women's Strike, told Euronews Health ahead of the announcement.

Continued: https://www.euronews.com/health/2024/03/05/womens-rights-activists-launch-effort-to-expand-abortion-rights-to-eu-level

05.03.2024

News

8th of March Institute

Doireann Crosson

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Marta Lempart

My Voice My Choice

National Women’s Council of Ireland

Nika Kovač

Polish women's strike

Poland’s de facto abortion ban risks lives, says MEP

By Clara Bauer-Babef and Eleonora Vasques | EURACTIV.com
Nov 18, 2022

While technically allowed in some cases, abortion in Poland may as well be forbidden, putting women’s lives at risk, said Robert Biedron, EU lawmaker and leader of the Polish opposition party Nowa Lewica on Thursday (17 November).

Two years ago, Poland’s constitutional court approved a highly-restrictive new law that de facto banned abortion. Only 107 legal abortions were performed in 2021, approximately 90% less than in previous years, according to figures published by the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/polands-de-facto-abortion-ban-risks-lives-says-mep/