The European Parliament has backed the citizens’ initiative My Voice, My Choice seeking wider access to safe and legal abortion. Many members, however, have denounced the plan as an intrusion on national powers.
The initiative urged the Commission to create a voluntary EU-budget mechanism to let willing governments pay for care when women cannot obtain it at home. On Wednesday, 17 December, the resolution passed by 358 votes to 202, with 79 abstentions. Parliament said “legal and practical barriers” still block women in several member states from safe abortions and pressed those countries to rewrite laws in line with human-rights standards.
Rights and responsibilities
The margin masked deep division. MEP Tomislav Sokol (EPP/HRV) warned of creeping centralism. “The My Voice, My Choice initiative is yet another example of ideology being pursued and EU rules being ignored. There is a great deal of emotional pressure here, aimed at creating the impression that abortion is a fundamental right. It is not a right. Abortion is not established as a fundamental right in international or European conventions. It is clearly stated that it is the competence of the member states.”
MEP Barbara Bonte (PfE/BEL) was harsher still. “My Voice, My Choice is not an innocent citizens’ initiative. It is a political project to circumvent national anti-abortion legislation through European channels… The aim is to use European taxpayers’ money against something that the states themselves have restricted. Abortion is a matter for national states, as each country has a different approach to it. It is not a technical choice, but a moral one.”
MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen (ECR/NLD) echoed that line. “It’s more than freedom and women’s rights. Women and society as a whole also have a responsibility. I am convinced that unborn life is a gift from God and that we have a responsibility for it. We must protect it and not freely dispose of it.”
You might be interested
‘Women are dying‘
Supporters replied in kind. MEP Gabriela Firea (S&D/ROU) recalled the deadly back-street abortions of the Ceauşescu era. “Women need the right to decide about their bodies and their lives… In Romania under socialism, tens of thousands of women died because abortions were banned and were circumvented in various risky ways… We will not increase the birth rate in Europe by curtailing women’s rights,” she said, urging wider public awareness.
We will not increase the birth rate in Europe by curtailing women’s rights. — MEP Gabriela Firea (S&D/ROU)
MEP Abir Al-Sahlani (Renew/SWE), rapporteur for the resolution listed offenders. “My Voice, My Choice exists because women are dying in Poland, because women in Malta are treated like criminals, because abortion exists on paper in Italy, because women’s rights are being trampled on in the name of tradition in Hungary and Slovakia,” she said.
The Iraqi-born member took the side of her fellow women with passion. “If Europe can finance roads, bridges and weapons, then it can certainly finance healthcare for women,” Ms Al-Sahlani said.
Over a million signatures
Backers of My Voice, My Choice want equal access to safe abortion across the Union, warning that denial harms physical and mental health, has serious social and economic consequences, deepens inequality and drives women to dangerous procedures with tragic results. They urge the Commission to propose an EU fund for member states that volunteer to host patients. The initiative gathered 1,124,513 signatures—mostly from Germany, France and Italy.
The next move lies with the Commission, which must say by March 2026 whether it will legislate, take non-legislative action or decline to act—and explain why.
