The green scarf, which has become a symbol of the struggle for abortion rights in Latin America, has been worn around the necks of more than one European politician in recent months. A woman’s right to make decisions about her body suffered a major global setback in 2022 when the United States Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade, which had served as the legal basis for voluntary abortion since 1973, struck down that this social and feminist conquest was not irreversible. Nor is Europe immune to this wave of regression, which could erode a hard-won right and take other fundamental freedoms with it. Because the attacks on abortion rights, many voices warn, are just a first step or a symptom of something potentially far more serious.
“We are in a battle between much more totalitarian governments that are using equality policies, women’s rights and women’s freedoms to advance their totalitarian and autocratic agenda in their countries,” says Ciudadanos MEP Soraya Rodríguez, member of the Committee on Social Affairs the rights and equality of women of the European Parliament.
The most denounced example is Poland, which two years ago enacted laws on abortion so restrictive that they amounted to a de facto total ban on this previously guaranteed right, even with restrictions. At least six women have died since the law was changed, although activists are convinced there are many more as restrictions force many to choose clandestine and unsafe abortions.
Along with the United States, Poland has the dubious honor of being one of four countries in the world – along with El Salvador and Nicaragua – to have backed down on abortion rights since 1994, according to the NGO Center for Reproductive Rights. But the Polish government is not the only one trying to restrict a practice that goes beyond a woman’s right to freely choose her body.
In September, Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary issued a decree obliging women who want an abortion to “listen to the heartbeat of the fetus” before they can terminate their pregnancy. International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) Director for Europe Caroline Hickson points to Romania and Slovakia as other “worrying” countries where “another attempt to restrict access to abortion is taking place”. And the arrival of the also ultra-strong Giorgia Meloni in the Italian government, closely linked to Orbán to defend “traditional family values”, has many activists worried that the anti-abortion alliance is no longer just a problem for eastern countries.
Because, as Hickson warns, in order to get a “full picture” of the European situation of abortion rights, one must also analyze “how accessible” access to abortion rights is in practice. “In many EU countries where abortion is legal, women face unacceptable barriers to accessing abortion care,” she says via email.
In 2021, the IPPF produced an “Atlas of Abortion Policy in Europe” in which it analyzed the situation of 52 European countries and territories. Her diagnosis: In 31, abortion is not covered by social security, penalizing mostly the most vulnerable women; Nineteen countries, “including several known for their progressive views,” force women to undergo unnecessary medical requirements before they can have an abortion, such as: B. prescribed waiting times or sometimes “partial” advice. Additionally, 16 European countries continue to regulate abortion primarily through their penal or penal codes, which IPPF warns “stigmatizes the procedure.” In 26, health workers can exercise their right to conscientious objection, which “potentially puts women at grave risk”. Finally, 18 countries do not provide “clear and precise” information about the practice.
Currently, Malta is the only country in the EU to have a full ban on abortion, although a bill to allow some cases in Parliament is making (slow) progress and is expected to be passed in 2023. In addition to the 27, there are other European countries that continue to ban or severely restrict voluntary abortion: In Andorra it is also completely banned, while in Liechtenstein or Monaco the laws on this are “extremely restrictive”, Hickson recalls.
For MEP and lawyer María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop (Unidas Podemos), there are three major risks to a right that many Europeans (and Americans) believed was irreversible: there is “regression to what already exists” like it happened in Poland or Hungary, and it could happen in Italy or Sweden, where the arrival of a far-right-backed government also worries feminists, for whom this country, which is now taking over the EU presidency, has been a model. There is also the danger of “not going backwards, but not moving forward in the right direction, which is also a form of regression,” says Palop. And a third “enormous” danger, he warns, is to “revert to the concept of family” and try to impose the idea of the “natural family,” in which “the most important thing is the woman in her capacity as mother.” , which articulates “racist and xenophobic policies related to the theory of the great replacement: Europeans must have children to prevent immigrants from replacing us”. All this with a religious element, “women as guarantors of traditional customs and customs linked to a classic vision of the Church”. Thus, Palop warns, the family “becomes a central element not only of anti-feminist politics, but also of those that identify the extreme right.”
The good news is that not all are setbacks. The French National Assembly took the first step in November to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution. Although there is no guarantee that the project will pass the entire legislative process, it sends a strong message. Like the one sent by the European Parliament this summer when it passed a resolution calling for the right to “safe and legal” abortion to be included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights just two weeks after the US Supreme Court backed down , which encompasses the civil, political, economic and social rights of Europeans. This will require unanimity from the 27 EU countries, which supporters concede is impossible today. However, it represents an important precedent and a political gesture, they defend. And they will also be necessary in the future.
“The cancellation of [la sentencia] Roe v. Wade in the United States was a stark warning to Europeans that hard-won protection of women’s rights cannot be taken for granted,” notes Hickson. At least, she celebrates, “we are seeing an awakening among feminists, youth and progressive parties, aware that rights and equality are at stake unless citizens mobilize in their defense.”
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits