Brussels, the quiet front line of Europe’s abortion wars

Conservative religious groups, US-linked think tanks and faith-based organisations are increasingly using the EU capital to push hardline anti-abortion views – blurring the line between belief, lobbying and politics

Emma Pirnay / Thomas Mangin – Euractiv
Jan 7, 2025

Brussels has become an unlikely hub for a well-funded conservative push against abortion rights, as religious organisations, lobby groups and foreign think tanks quietly expand their footprint near the EU’s centres of power.

In late September, American preacher Franklin Graham came to Brussels’ ING Arena to take centre stage at his Festival of Hope. A multimillionaire who inherited his father Billy’s evangelism empire, Graham is known for comparing abortion to “murder” and for his close ties to Donald Trump.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/news/ripe-for-harvest-brussels-growing-web-of-anti-abortion-religious-influence/

07.01.2026

Commentary

Camille Gervais

Center for Reproductive Rights

European Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Franklin Graham

Heritage Foundation

My Voice My Choice campaign

‘Trojan horse moment’: anti-rights groups seize chance to fill void left by US aid cuts

Ultra-conservative Christian organisations look to reshape global health landscape as new aid agreements open door to demands restricting family planning services

Isabel Choat
Wed 17 Dec 2025

The sudden stop work order on USAID in January 2025 sent shock waves around the world. Many health clinics were immediately shut down, leaving millions without access to vital medicines and facilities, with potentially deadly consequences, especially for HIV patients, children, and women and adolescent girls.

To many, the subsequent axing of 83% of USAID programmes seemed like pure nihilism, engineered by ideologues who wanted to kill off the agency. But there was a long-term vision behind the destruction. The gutting of USAID has cleared a path for the next phase of a plan to reshape the global health landscape, say reproductive justice campaigners.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/17/trojan-horse-moment-anti-rights-groups-fill-void-us-aid-cuts

Menstruation apps: What happens to your data and how it can be used to criminalize abortion

Two investigations warn about how data collected through menstrual tracking apps can be used by governments to monitor people’s reproductive lives, and by companies to make a profit

Catalina Oquendo
SEP 13, 2025

What does the volatile global political environment have to do with the menstruation of millions of people? With whom do menstrual cycle apps share our medical data? And how can this information be used to criminalize women who choose to have an abortion?

More and more people are downloading menstrual tracking apps on their phones. Hence, these questions are becoming a major concern for researchers and academics. This is because the data stored in these apps is considered to be a “gold mine” for the market.

Continued; https://english.elpais.com/health/2025-09-14/menstruation-apps-what-happens-to-your-data-and-how-it-can-be-used-to-criminalize-abortion.html

Inside Europe’s billion-dollar anti-gender movement

A new report reveals how groups critical of so-called gender ideology across the EU raised $1.18 billion to target abortion, sex education and LGBTQ+ rights.

By Federica Di Sario, Parliament Magazine
26 Jun 2025

For progressives in Europe, 2013 was a year of hope. France adopted historic legislation legalising same-sex marriage. Only a few months later, the UK extended similar rights through the Marriage Act. Portugal implemented a new law to protect transgender rights. And even Ireland — long a Catholic stronghold — introduced new measures to shield queer youth from bullying.

But 2013 also marked a turning point for a group of religious conservatives. Alarmed by what they saw as an erosion of traditional values, they began to mobilise. A decade later, activism once confined to the political fringe has evolved into a billion-euro operation seeking to defeat “gender ideology.”

Continued: https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/inside-europes-billioneuro-antigender-movement

26.06.2025

Commentary

Aleksandar Vučić

American Center for Law & Justice

Bert-Jan Ruissen

European branch of the Center for Reproductive Rights

European Center for Law and Justice

European Conservatives and Reformists

European Court of Human Rights

European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights

French Fonds de dotation GT Editions

gender identity rights

Europe – MEPs demand answers over EU funding of anti-abortion charity

Politicians express concern after openDemocracy revealed EU gave €1.2m to group spreading reproductive disinformation

Sian Norris
19 December 2024

Members of the European Parliament have demanded answers over the European Union’s funding of an anti-abortion organisation.

Earlier this year, openDemocracy revealed the EU’s Erasmus+ programme had handed €1.2m to the World Youth Alliance (WYA), a US-based charity that promotes anti-abortion disinformation.

Now, politicians from Poland, Germany, Sweden and Slovakia have urged the European Commission to “commit to reviewing and potentially halting EU funding for organisations that oppose reproductive freedom”.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/eu-anti-abortion-funding-questions-world-youth-alliance-erasmus/

Guatemala – Hidden in plain sight: The lobby group restricting rights in Latin America

Founded by members of shadowy Catholic organisation Opus Dei, the AFI has become one of Guatemala’s most influential groups

26 November 2024
OpenDemocracy

In the first half of this year, seven girls aged between 10 and 14 gave birth in Guatemala every single day.

Guatemalan law states that these 1,298 girls are the victims of sexual violence. Medical professionals say their pregnancies pose a high risk to their physical and mental health. But the Asociación la Familia Importa (AFI), Guatemala’s most influential anti-abortion organisation, has focused on preventing such girls from having abortions at any cost – and it is succeeding.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/afi-guatemala-opus-dei-anti-abortion-restrict-rights-latin-america/

26.11.2024

American Convention on Human Rights

anti-choice misinformation

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice terrorism

anti-choice violence

Asociación la Familia Importa

Beatriz abortion

Bernardo Arévalo

Catholic Church

César Brañas Castillo

comprehensive sexuality education

Elvira Estradé

Enlace

Family Matters Association

Family Research Council

Geneva Consensus Declaration

Guatemala Leaks

Heritage Foundation

Human Life international

Humberto Grazioso

Jordán Rodas

Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer

Ligia Briz

Mayra Figueroa de Poggio

Mirna Cardona de González

Mirna Montenegro

Opus Dei

OSAR

Parliamentary Front for Life and Family

EU gives anti-abortion group €400k to educate girls on reproductive health

EU criticised for ‘mind-boggling’ decision to give the World Youth Alliance funding for girls’ reproductive health education

Sian Norris, OpenDemocracy
15 October 2024

AUS-based anti-abortion charity was given a €400,000 grant from the European Union to run a reproductive health and rights education project, in a decision that experts describe as “mind-boggling.”

The World Youth Alliance (WYA), which has a Brussels office, claims that abortion poses a risk to fertility and future pregnancies – claims rejected by the NHS. Its founder, Anna Halpine, has also compared abortion to “the Nazis and their campaign to dehumanise Jews”.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/anti-abortion-ngo-eu-funding-reproductive-health-programme/

European Union funds charity that compares abortion to Holocaust

EU hands €1.2m to charity that spreads disinformation about sexual and reproductive rights to teens and women globally

Sian Norris, Soita Khatondi Wepukhulu
3 October 2024

The European Union has given more than a million euros to a charity that peddles anti-abortion misinformation and whose founder compared reproductive rights to the Holocaust, an investigation by openDemocracy can reveal.

The US-based World Youth Alliance (WYA) – which has a European office in Brussels – is officially a “non-religious” non-governmental organisation, yet its values and teachings often echo religious conservative talking points on gender rights.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/eu-funding-anti-abortion-charity/

How a community-run helpline is helping women access safe abortion advice in Kenya

Sian Norris
June 20, 2023

In a leafy Nairobi suburb, the roaring traffic and human bustle of the city’s highways has receded into the distance. All that breaks the soft silence is the insistent ringing of the phone inside an office decorated with posters promoting sexual and reproductive rights. One poster explores consent: “is she shy, or too afraid to say stop?” Another exhorts the reader to “be true to you”, while one simply states “joy”.

Picking up that phone are the team behind Aunty Jane, a hotline which provides support for anyone with questions about their sexual and reproductive health, including how to access safe and legal abortion care.

Continued: https://theferret.scot/aunty-jane-kenya-helpline-access-safe-abortion/

20.06.2023

Commentary

Adhiambo

African Youth Action Network

Aunty Jane

Betram Odhiambo

Hesperian Health Guides

In a case at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, European groups supported criminalising women who had obstetric emergencies

Diana Cariboni and Tatev Hovhannisyan
3 December 2021

European right-wing groups backed the El Salvador government over the imprisonment and death of a woman for having a miscarriage. But they lost.

One of the groups was the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), a branch of the ultra-conservative American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), led by Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/europe-us-right-groups-elsalvador-criminalising-abortion/

05.12.2021