EU Parliament votes in favor of abortion travel fund

Members of the European Parliament voted December 17 in favor of creating a new fund with the purpose of paying for women from European Union (EU) countries with pro-life protections to travel for the purpose of killing their preborn children in pro-abortion nations.

Key Takeaways:

• The EU Parliament voted to create an optional fund that would use money to pay for women in pro-life EU nations to travel for abortion.

• The initiative was presented by the group "My Voice My Choice," which has the backing of powerful pro-abortion organizations and philanthropists.

• The abortion fund resolution is non-binding, and next needs to be considered by the European Commission.

The Details:

The "My Voice My Choice" citizens' initiative would create a voluntary, opt-in fund from the EU budget to pay for women in pro-life nations, like Poland or Malta, to travel to EU nations where abortion is more readily available. Members of the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg, France voted 358 in favor, 202 against, with 79 abstentions.

The citizens initiative was forwarded to Parliament by the pro-abortion group "My Voice My Choice," which presented the proposal through a petition process. The proposal garnered much debate, with anti-abortion groups warning that creating centralized funding circumvents national laws surrounding the protection of preborn children.

“The Commission should not have allowed a proposal in an area they don’t have competence in, such as abortion, especially when it requires financial aid to overcome national laws,” said Patriots for Europe MEP Margarita de la Pisa Carrión.

The Catholic Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union issued a statement ahead of the vote in which it "express[ed] serious concerns regarding the overall objective of this initiative":

"[H]uman life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception… Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law. Moreover, we believe that women in vulnerable situations need forms of support other than those proposed by the present and similar initiatives aimed at facilitating abortion."

According to Catholic News Agency, the initiative is considered a non-binding resolution rather than a legislative act. The European Commission will next be required to respond by March as to whether or not it intends to propose legislative or policy measures related to the initiative.

Zoom In:

Catholic News Agency reports that the "My Voice My Choice" organization, which forwarded the initiative, has the backing of a powerful global network of abortion advocacy groups.

In November, the European Centre for Law and Justice convened a pro-life conference in Brussels at which it presented a report on the group's funding.

CNA reports (emphasis added):

According to the report, among the more than 250 organizations listed as supporters, a significant number receive funding from EU institutions and large American philanthropic foundations.

The report identified funding streams from organizations such as the Open Society Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, as well as direct EU funding. Several prominent pro-abortion organizations across Europe were shown to have long-standing financial ties to these donors.

My Voice, My Choice’s principal organizer, Nika Kovač, a Slovenian anthropologist who heads the 8th of March Institute, is linked in the report as having her organization receive funding from the Open Society Foundation and support from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). 

Additionally, according to the report, IPPF’s European branch has received millions of euros in funding over the past two decades from the European Union and major U.S.-based foundations.

The Bottom Line:

The EU's vote is a reminder that abortion advocates — and well-heeled pro-abortion philanthropists — will go to great lengths to kill preborn children across the globe. All preborn children deserve protection from abortion, no matter where they live.