The setbacks began a few years ago. First it was Poland. It became one of the countries with the most restrictions in Europe for abortion when, in 2020, the Constitutional Court declared it illegal except in two cases: when the mother's life is in danger and if the pregnancy is the result of rape. Then, Italy, which with the arrival of Giorgia Meloni has been incorporating obstacles to the exercise of that right. Malta has been the place where it is most difficult for women to terminate their pregnancies for years. And in the rest of European territory, where it is a more or less widely recognized right, its access is not guaranteed for millions of women either. 20 million, according to the organization My voice, my decisionwhich is also the name of the European Citizens' Initiative that has opened the collection of signatures this Wednesday. They need one million for the petition to reach the Community Executive: that abortion be free, safe, free and accessible, regardless of the country in which they live and the economic or administrative situation they have.
This European movement was, initially, promoted by organizations and coalitions from eight European countries: Slovenia, Poland, France, Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Austria and Finland. They were the ones who registered the citizen initiative – an instrument that allows citizens of the Union to request the European Executive to propose new laws, programs or actions – before the European Commission. “To those, Hungary, Italy and Denmark have also been added,” said Kika Fumero, former director of the Canarian Equality Institute and one of the coordinators in Spain, who has also explained why “the EU cannot be required to abortion as “a really effective right in all countries”, but it can be demanded “for all women who are in the European Union.”
Within the European Union, Fumero added, there are three types of powers: “Those exclusive to the EU, others that are part of the shared powers and a third type, called support, which are those that correspond to the member states, at the national level. Reproductive rights are part of the latter, which is why we cannot demand it in all countries, but we can demand it for all women in Europe, through financing programs that are multi-year, and that are aimed at countries where it is legal and accessible to “that they ensure that they receive women who reside in territories where that does not happen.”
“Plans like this exist for other issues in Europe, so that those who cannot do so in their countries can travel, terminate their pregnancy and return to their country with all the guarantees, and free of charge,” the writer and journalist has expanded. Cristina Fallarás, another of the coordinators in Spain. Fallarás has also recalled that it is not only countries like “Malta, where until the middle of last year abortion had up to three years in prison, and where it is now permitted only if the mother's life is in danger”, but that in those countries where it is supposed to be accessible and established as a right, “it is not totally effective either.”
“Also,” added Fumero, “for those who cannot do so because there are restrictive cases, such as in Poland; for those places where it is legal, but not free, such as in Austria; where there are considerable difficulties to access, such as Italy; and for those women who are in a stage of pregnancy where their country no longer allows them to terminate the pregnancy.” In most European countries this limit is “12 weeks, in Spain, 14, in France, 16, and in the Netherlands, 24,” the former Canarian director of Equality has specified. And “also in Spain,” she recalled, “sometimes this access is difficult and women have to travel.”
In Spanish territory, how accessible abortion is depends on the autonomy where one resides, because although the last legislative reform established that it must be in the public system where women must be able to exercise that right — and the system itself must guarantee it — , it doesn't happen yet. The lists of objectors that the centers had to make to reorganize their services and guarantee that any hospital had professionals to carry out the interruptions, have not yet been made throughout the territory, among other issues.
That is to say, nothing has changed since that last update of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Law; according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health, with data from 2022, of the 98,316 voluntary terminations of pregnancy that year, only 17.02% were carried out in public centers. And there are regions that still do not report abortions from their hospitals, such as Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón, Murcia and Extremadura.
The movement was presented this Wednesday, at the same time, in various European cities. Although they have one year to collect signatures, according to what the European Union establishes for Citizen Initiatives, they want to deliver that million they need before the European elections, on June 9. As Fumero and Fallarás have said, “because the next European elections are approaching, we see the rise of the extreme right not only here, in Europe, but in the United States and Latin America, and in view of what may come, let us not act in reaction , but that we are waiting for them for what may happen.”
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