The European Parliament on Thursday voted to make abortion a fundamental right, just weeks after French MEPs voted to enshrine the right to abortion in its constitution.
12 out of 13 Irish MEPs voted for the proposal. They were Independents Clare Daly, Mick Wallace, and Luke Ming Flanagan; Chris MacManus of Sinn Fein; Barry Andrews, Billy Kelleher of Fianna Fail; Sean Kelly, Colm Markey, Deirdre Clune, Maria Walsh and Frances Fitzgerald of Fine Gael, and Grace O’Sullivan of the Greens.
Green Party TD Ciaran Cuffe was absent from the vote.
Pro-life organisation the Life Institute said on Wednesday that the vote was “shameful,” urging people to “vote them out” on the 7 June.
“It’s a symbolic vote, but the meaning of their stance couldn’t be clearer,” the group said.
The right to abortion should be included in the EU Charter of Fundamental rights, centrist and left-wing MEPs argued prior to the vote. MEPs passed the non-binding resolution this afternoon by 336 votes to 163, however the right to “safe and legal abortion,” in order to be included in the bloc’s legally binding charter, would require unanimous agreement by all of the EU’s 27 member states.
The resolution was brought forward by lawmakers on behalf of the S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/European Free Alliance and The Left, and also by MEP Arba Kokalari of the European People’s Party group (but not on behalf of the party).
Malta is the only country in the EU which prohibits abortion. It has come under pressure to change its pro-life legislation, alongside Poland, where abortion laws have been tightened, to allow for abortion only in cases where there is a “risk to life” or if the pregnancy resulted from rape.
The text calls on both Poland and Malta to repeal their laws and other measures that ban and restrict abortion.
In a plenary debate on 14 March, ten days after France became the first country to enshrine the right to abortion in its constitution, MEPs urged member states to “guarantee women’s access” to abortion.
Following the move from French MPs, President French Emmanuel Macron vowed to push for abortion to be in the EU rights charter, as reported by French newspaper Le Monde.
Members of the European Parliament have put pressure on Malta to decriminalise abortion, while some of the country’s politicians have remained defiant. Maltese Labour MEPs AlMaltese Labour MEPs Alex Agius Saliba and Josianne Cutajar were the only two Social and Democrats to vote against the proposal at the European Parliament on Wednesday, joining Maltese MEP for the European People’s Party, David Casa.
Another Maltese MEP, Alfred Sant, a member of Labour, was among 49 MEPs to abstain from the vote — the single Social Democrat to do so.
The European Parliament urged: “Abortion methods and procedures should be an obligatory part of the curriculum for doctors and medical students, Parliament says.
“Member states should ensure access to the full range of SRHR services including comprehensive and age-appropriate sexuality and relationship education. Accessible, safe and free contraceptive methods and supplies, and family planning counselling, should be made available, with special attention paid to reaching vulnerable groups
“Women in poverty are disproportionately affected by legal, financial, social and practical barriers and restrictions to abortion, MEPs say, calling on member states to remove these barriers.”
There was pushback from some despite the majority vote. Italian pro-life organisation Pro Vita and Famiglia condemned the “obscene” vote, saying that it was a “tragic snapshot” of the state of the European Parliament, which it said was “addicted to gender ideology and pro-abortion views, becoming increasingly irrelevant in major international issues.”
EU…RIP
Today, the #European Parliament approved a (NON-binding) political resolution calling for the murdering of a baby in the womb to one day be included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, making #Abortion a "common value" to be promoted.
However, the EU Charter of… pic.twitter.com/wTbfMxbzxg
— Pro Vita & Famiglia (@ProVitaFamiglia) April 11, 2024
“With today’s vote, the European Parliament begins to dig its own grave,” the organisation wrote on X.
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A fundamental right to murder your own child…..think about that.
Surely abortion (no later than a certain time, which we can discuss) is better for the child in certain cases if being brought into a family who don’t want it, won’t be able to look after it, might abandon it etc etc. Teenage pregnancies come to mind, rape victims, mothers with health complications.
“Abortion is BETTER FOR THE CHILD” ????
At best, an adolescent troll;
At worst, a mindless moron!
Its mind boggling that people here think every single pregnancy should be brought to term regardless of extreme circumstances. If a 13 year old girl is raped, she should be made keep her rapists baby in your eyes?
What’s mind boggling is that some people can dress up the murder of an unborn child as some sort of act of ‘compassion’. As for the ‘health of the mother’ – Ireland, before we repealed abortion, had an extremely low maternal mortality rate, far lower than say the UK or the US or Canada where abortion is freely available. We may have had as many as 10,000 abortions here last year – you seem to think they were all 13 year old rape victims.
It never ceases to amaze me that the pro abortion lobby continues to use the oxymoron ‘safe abortion’. Do they realise what abortion actually is?
Any one who has seen the abortion procedure and the absolute abhorrent and barbaric nature of the physical trauma inflicted on THE most vulnerable human being and continues to promote and champion it has been corrupted by the most evil of influences. Normalising the butchering of babies in utero. No other life form on the planet engages in this behaviour and activity. The devils playground is certainly real
Do you agree with abortion for rape victims and if there’s a risk of health to the mother?
No one has the right to end human life
That is a preposterous mindset. If a 13 year old is raped and becomes pregnant, you think she should be forced to keep that baby? Or likewise if the mother has a high risk of death from childbirth she should be made to roll the dice? Why do you put more weight to the unborn childs life than the mother?
1. An abortion is the intentional killing of an unborn baby.
2 An operation to save a woman’s life is NOT an abortion, if the baby dies as an unintended consequence.
3. Nobody is FORCED to keep the baby. Adoption is an ideal solution, which you will readily accept, if you were really serious in a previous post, about the welfare of the baby.
A country such as Malta is in a more credible position in foreign diplomacy when it sends an envoy to a country where the death penalty is legal to persuade them to spare the life of a condemned prisoner or if it is asked to help to broker a cease fire in a conflict such as Gaza.
The woke marxist mind virus has infected every aspect of western society driven by these globalist institutions, reality inverted, the devil reality…………..murdering kids is health care………..of course it is
Shame on our MEPs. Pathetic that group think has taken over our political class.Time to drain the swamp.
Europe’s fertility rate has been stuck around 1.5 births per woman for the past decade, with no prospect of it returning to sustainable levels. Enshrining abortion as a constitutional/fundamental right is going to accelerate the problem. And it is a huge problem, with huge ramifications going forward. Not least the knock-on cultural effect of enshrining the taking of an innocent human life into law.
In the upcoming elections, please ensure you do not vote for any of the current elected parties, all of them would follow the communist eu to hell. They do not serve the interests of people in this country.
To help the huge problem of rape, the punishment needs to fit the crime. Offenders need to be incarnated, and made to work for the upkeep of the child until the child reaches 21 yrs. This measure would drastically cut rape crime. They should have to serve this sentence in another country, and, never have any contact or influence on the child, and, no knowledge of either it’s whereabouts or anything to do with it. Until sentences for serious crimes which impact lives are enforced, nothing will change.