The European Parliament will soon debate whether or not to include the “right” to killing preborn human beings in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The news comes just weeks after France became the first nation in the world to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right, with French President Emmanuel Macron indicating that he intended to continue his pro-abortion push all the way to the EU. According to the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ), parliament members met on March 14 to debate Macron’s proposal.
The ECLJ has sent a letter to MEPs noting that it believes that should abortion be discussed, it should be done so within the framework of preventing it — not expanding it.
The organization also noted that legally, the EU cannot amend the charter on the topic of abortion, since any matters of health policy are to be left to the individual nations themselves. It also emphasizes that “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.”
READ: Dying by assisted suicide is no ‘fairy tale’… and it can take hours or even days to die
“Deciding about one’s own body is a fundamental right: there is no equality if women cannot do so; it is impossible without the right to abortion,” said Danish MEP Karen Melchior as she presented the topic during the meeting last week.
“While the radical right is working hard to find new ways to push through its reactionary agenda, we in a truly liberal society must stand up for women’s rights more resolutely than ever: The right to abortion must be enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, because we must never leave women’s rights to the populists,” Valérie Hayer, an MEP from France, told Germany’s RND media in an interview.
EU Parliament members are expected to meet for a more formal debate during the next plenary session of the European Parliament in April in Brussels.
