European Parliament Committee: Restricting abortion 'reduces women to their procreative role'

The European Parliament Women's Rights Committee voted 26-12 in favor of a draft pro-abortion resolution to the European Commission. The "My Voice, My Choice" initiative would expand women's access to abortion in all European Union (EU) nations, in part by funding abortion travel.

Key Takeaways:

• The European Parliament Women's Rights Committee voted in favor of a draft resolution on Wednesday that calls for open access to abortion in the EU, including the funding of abortion-related travel.

• The My Voice, My Choice resolution claims women cannot be equal to men without legalized abortion and that protecting preborn children in the womb "reduces women to their procreative role" and "creates discrimination" against women.

• In reality, legalized abortion gave women a power that no man has and no person should have: the power to kill innocent human beings based on convenience.

• Women and men are inherently equal, and the implication that they are not equal unless women can kill their children (because men can abandon them) leads women to view their own children as their oppressors.

The Details:

On Wednesday, the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) adopted the draft resolution, "My Voice My Choice: For Safe an Accessible Abortion," which "calls on the Commission to submit a proposal for financial support to Member States that would enable them to provide safe termination of pregnancies, in accordance with their domestic law, for anyone in the EU who still lacks access to safe and legal abortion."

My Voice, My Choice, a pan-European, pro-abortion movement, has gathered more than 1.1 million verified signatures across all 27 EU countries. EU nations could join the fund voluntarily, and it would cover travel costs for women from pro-life leaning nations like Malta and Poland, who want to access abortion abroad in pro-abortion EU nations.

"[T]he ability of individuals to exercise their reproductive autonomy, including the right to decide freely and responsibly whether, when and how to have children, is indispensable for achieving gender equality and for the full enjoyment of the human rights for everyone in Europe," the resolution states. It also claimed that "the inability to access universally accessible, safe and legal abortion directly restricts women's rights such as self-determination, physical and mental integrity, health, education or work; whereas the restriction of such rights reduces women to their procreative role and thus creates discrimination on the basis of sex." [Emphases added]

The resolution calls for all "legal and practical barriers" to abortion to be removed, and complains about nations that have laws protecting the lives of women and preborn children to any degree — including 11 nations that do not have the abortion pill, nations that do not have abortion via telehealth, and those that do not "reimburse or subsidise abortion..."

Furthermore, it considers laws requiring counseling, ultrasounds, information on the types of abortion procedures allowed, conscience objections for medical professionals, and more, to be "regressive barriers."

It states that open abortion access is in line with "European values" and "stresses that EU has an important role to support efforts in Member States to advance the provision of quality [sexual and reproductive rights], including abortion care." It also "[r]eiterates its call to the Commission to make full use of its competence in health policy and provide support to Member States in guaranteeing universal access to [sexual and reproductive rights] in the framework of the EU4health program for 2021-2027."

In addition, the resolution calls for "the right to abortion" to be included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and claims being restricted from killing a preborn child causes "economic and mental stress" for women and families.

Parliament is expected to vote on the non-legally binding resolution in December. If Parliament endorses the plan, the proposal would go to the European Commission, which would have until March to decide whether to propose EU legislation enabling funding for abortion access abroad.

Similar non-binding resolutions were endorsed in 2022 and 2024.

Commentary:

According to The European Conservative, "The outcome of the vote is bad news for pro-life Europeans, who believe that freedom of choice cannot exist without respect for life and that Europe should prioritize policies supporting mothers, families and economic stability."

Funding policies that assist families facing economic hardships and other factors that could lead to abortion would allow women the freedom to choose life when faced with societal and financial pressure to abort their babies. Ultimately, the problem boils down to the fact that pro-abortion groups claim open access to abortion is necessary for women to be equal to men.

They wrongly claim that not allowing abortion at any point in pregnancy for any reason is discriminatory against women. The opposite is true.

Legalized abortion has allowed for a “gender perspective” in which women alone have the power to kill another human being for any reason. When pregnant, the mother can choose life or death for a baby, while the father has no say at all. He is expected to do whatever the woman wants, even if he desperately wants his child to live.

To claim that women can not have "equality" or "full enjoyment" of their rights without abortion implies that because women can get pregnant, they are unequal to men — that because of their fertility, they are somehow "less than." It implies that only men can be parents and 'enjoy' their rights, but women can't. This false idea leads women to view their own children as their oppressors.

To claim that not being freely allowed to kill their own preborn children "restricts women's rights such as self-determination, physical and mental integrity, health, education or work" and "reduces women to their procreative role" creating "discrimination on the basis of sex," treats pregnancy and children as forms of punishment. It implies that men can have sex, have careers, and be fathers without sacrificing any aspect of their lives — but that it is impossible for a mother to have success in any other aspect of her life.

In claiming that restricting abortion "reduces women to their procreative role," the resolution itself actually demeans motherhood, which isn't a mere "procreative" role — it is so much more, including an investment and commitment of oneself to the welfare and wellbeing of another, more vulnerable human being.

Legalized abortion doesn't lift women out of discrimination to an equal position to men. Women and men are inherently equal, and legalized abortion reduces women to the level of negligent men who abandon their children — except for the fact that women can move beyond mere abandonment and kill their children — and then be celebrated for it.

We know mothers can fully participate in society because it’s been proven by the careers of countless women who are also mothers.

In addition, there is no right to intentionally kill innocent human beings, and abortion is not health care. It is a violent act that infringes on the right to life of innocent human beings. One person’s desire to be “free” from a responsibility they don’t want does not give that person the right to oppress or kill an innocent human being.

The Bottom Line:

If pregnancy or parenthood is causing financial or emotional stress for families, governments should fund support for those families, not abortion. Funding abortion serves as a secondary source of coercion for women who already feel pressured to have abortions.

Killing their babies won't erase the pressures of life; it will only add to them.