The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. / fotogoocom via Wikimedia (CC BY 3.0)A proposed resolution by the European Parliament to incorporate a “right to abortion” in the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights has been criticized by legal experts as “inaccurate and misleading.”
The resolution will be put to a vote by the legislative body on July 7 in the afternoon. “On the US Supreme Court decision to reverse abortion rights in the US and the need to protect abortion rights and women’s health in the EU,” is the title of the document.
According to Adina Portaru, senior lawyer for ADF International in Brussels, “every government has a sovereign right to protect the most vulnerable in their countries — those in the womb,” in a statement to CNA on July 6.
She continued, “Women deserve better than abortion. “A truly dedicated Europe to human rights recognizes and defends both lives in a pregnancy, supporting both mother and child.”
The European Union, a political and economic union of 27 member states, has two legislative bodies, one of which is the European Parliament.
A motion for a resolution on the subject of “Global dangers to abortion rights: the likely overturning of abortion rights in the U.S. by the Supreme Court” was introduced in early June.
The European Parliament debated a new resolution on July 4 in response to the Dobbs ruling, which calls for adding “the right to abortion” as “Article 7a” to the list of 50 rights in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights in the European Union. The next phrase would be “respect for private and family life” in Article 7.
The proposed text of this non-binding resolution, according to Portaru, “is essentially false and deceptive.
There is no “right” to abortion; instead, Article 2 of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights supports everyone’s right to life.
She stated, “The radical attempt by Members of the European Parliament to persuade nations to adopt an extreme regime – abortion without limit during all nine months of pregnancy — shows a move which is significantly out of touch with the European people.
According to a survey conducted in 30 European nations, 6 out of 7 Europeans support some kind of abortion restriction that would safeguard pregnant women and their unborn children.
“The recognition of an alleged right to abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, would be in flagrant contradiction to the Charter itself, which enshrines in its first two articles the inviolability of human dignity and the right to life,” attorney and Federation of Catholic Families (FAFCE) president Vincenzo Bassi said in a statement to CNA.
FAFCE is an umbrella group that advocates for Catholic family values before the European Union and European Council.
“Policymakers should be focused on recognizing the function of the family and on protecting and respecting motherhood as a priceless gift, rather than promoting motorways to the ‘throwaway’ culture of consumption and waste, decried by Pope Francis,” Bassi said in a statement.
“Public institutions should remove the many obstacles that families and couples encounter in order to welcome life. Instead, he continued, “the European Parliament reiterates its recommendations to facilitate abortion.
It is disheartening that this institution devotes attention to matters that are so out of its scope and disconnected from the real worries of EU members.
The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) secretary general, Father Manuel Barrios Prieto, expressed “surprise” in June that the European Union’s legislative body intended to consider “the impact of a leaked draft ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court regarding abortion.”
He declared, “This is an outrageous intrusion into the democratic jurisdictional decisions of a sovereign state, a country that is also not a member state of the EU.”
It will only damage this institution if the European Parliament approves a resolution endorsing this intervention.