The European Parliament adopted a report on Thursday urging the Twenty-Seven to guarantee women’s access to abortion, subject to very restrictive laws in some member states, while ensuring access to “quality and affordable contraception” .
This non-binding report, hotly debated in plenary, calls on states “to ensure that women enjoy quality, comprehensive and affordable sexual and reproductive rights and to remove all obstacles that prevent full access to these services”. This is a “fundamental pillar of women’s rights and gender equality”, which “can in no way be reduced or withdrawn”, insists the text, adopted by 378 votes (with 255 votes against and 42 abstentions).
“Very restrictive laws” in European countries
Without naming a country, MEPs point to “the very restrictive laws in force in certain member states, which prohibit abortion except in strictly defined circumstances”, pushing women “to clandestine abortions” or “to carry their pregnancies to term. against their will, a violation of human rights ”. The report criticizes the possibility offered by some states to doctors or medical establishments to refuse to provide health services on the basis of a “conscience clause”.
Parliament also calls on states to guarantee access to “quality and affordable contraceptive products”, while a majority of member states do not reimburse them or only slightly. He calls for access to fertility treatment without discrimination, particularly vis-à-vis single women and female couples.
VAT exemptions on feminine hygiene products
It also encourages “comprehensive sexuality education for children in primary and secondary education”, taking into account “the diversity of sexual and gender orientations”. As of 2019, sex education remained optional in eight EU countries, and Hungary is currently under heavy criticism for its legislation banning the “promotion” of homosexuality among minors.
Finally, parliamentarians call on states to apply VAT exemptions on feminine hygiene products or to make them available free of charge to people in need, to combat “menstrual insecurity”.
“Every woman has the right to choose”
“I am not advocating abortion. What my report says is that every woman has the right to choose (…) Abortions performed clandestinely are dangerous for women’s health and often have fatal consequences ”, commented Croatian MEP Predrag Matic (S&D, social democrats), author of the text.
He strongly denounced the actions of the anti-abortion movements which preceded the vote, criticizing “the dissemination of disinformation” and “the sending of small plastic fetuses to many MEPs”. The text was criticized Thursday by the Commission of Catholic Episcopates of the EU, which deemed it “biased”. She felt that “abortion was not a human right”.