The European Parliament has voted in favour of adding abortion access to the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. SPUC has slammed the non-binding vote as “a shameless attack on innocent life”.
On 11 April, MEPs voted 336 to 163 in favour of the resolution calling for abortion to be made a human right.
French MEP Manon Aubry asserted that “the right to abortion is not a question of point of view… It is a human right… The right to abortion does not kill. On the contrary, it saves lives."
However, the vote was symbolic because the addition of abortion access to the Charter of Fundamental Rights would require the assent of all 27 member states of the European Union, including pro-life Poland and Malta.
The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) has previously warned MEPs that the Charter cannot be amended to make abortion a right as matters of health must be left to nations to decide.
“No European or international human rights treaty or system establishes abortion as a right… The right to life is protected in various treaties, and there is even international protection for children before birth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child”, the ECLJ stated.
This week’s vote comes after France made abortion a constitutional right. French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly called for abortion to be enshrined as a right across the EU.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “The EU Parliament has been taken over by pro-abortion ideologues bent on imposing their horrid worldview across Europe. Such shameless politicians who pervert the truth will stop at nothing to achieve their life-denying ends.
“In this vote, which is virtual signalling at its worst, MEPs contradicted their own Charter, which states that Everyone has the right to life. We must continue to promote that truth, not only for its own sake, but also for the countless unborn babies who will be wiped out by the lie that abortion doesn’t kill.”
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