A group of European activists launched a campaign in Brussels on Monday to establish a fund to ensure access to abortion for all citizens in the European Union.
The campaign, "My Voice, My Choice for Safe and Accessible Abortion" (My Voice My Choice), is seeking to establish a fund to help women within the EU that cannot access safe abortion in their own Member State to travel to neighbouring EU countries for the procedure.
In parallel with the overturning of Roe v Wade which removed the right to abortion in the US, the growing prominence of right-wing and far-right parties across the EU poses a particular threat to reproductive rights and access to safe abortion in EU Member States.
My Voice My Choice highlight that there are still 20 million women in the EU who lack access to safe abortion care. While some States have taken steps to protect access to abortion, such as France recently enshrining the right to abortion in its constitution, other European far-right parties such as AfD in Germany, PiS in Poland, and Fratelli d’Italia in Italy are rallying firmly against reproductive rights.
Key campaign organiser (and head of Slovenian equality-focused non-profit Institute 8th of March) Nika Kovač told The Brussels Times that they want to establish a fund to protect the right to abortion at an EU level, despite what policy decisions are made by national governments.
"We want to establish a mechanism which will basically allow women from all over Europe to go to a country where abortion is legal and accessible, and have it financed by the mechanism so they don’t have the cost of abortion," she said.
European Citizen's Initiative
Organisers of the campaign are hoping to bring the proposal to the European Commission and Parliament by way of a European Citizen’s Initiative.
Through this mechanism, once a proposal for a new EU law collects 1 million signatures from EU nationals in at least seven member states, it can be submitted to the European Commission for consideration.
My Voice My Choice say that the value of the proposed fund would be a matter for the European Commission to decide, and that their aim for now is just to get the matter on the agenda through the citizen’s initiative.
Officially registered with the European Commission on 10 April, the campaign has 12 months to collect 1 million signatures. However, Ms Kovač said their initiative is quickly gaining speed.
As they expect to surpass 100,000 signatures by Wednesday, she said they are striving to hit the 1 million signature mark within seven weeks.
“This is firstly because we think that the matter is urgent, because women are still dying in Polish hospitals. Secondly, because we don’t want to campaign for the full year, we think that we can achieve this faster. And thirdly, because European elections are coming, and we want to push candidates for Members of European Parliament to be really clear about if they are supporting reproductive rights and abortion or not,” she said.
Encouraging voters
A secondary objective of the My Voice My Choice campaign, which is backed by a collective of around 100 pro-abortion organisations across Europe, is to encourage EU citizens to vote in the upcoming elections, and keep in mind politicians’ stances on reproductive rights.
“This campaign is also about solidarity and reminding people that it is important that they vote on European elections – it’s really important what kind of Commission we get, and what kind of European Parliament, because they will be deciding about this issue,” said Ms Kovač.
Signatures for the campaign will be collected through the My Voice My Choice page on the European Citizen's Initiative register, as well as through national events, protests, and social media actions.
