With the massive support of Socialists and Democrats, today the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the EU member states to include the right to legal and save abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. This is the S&D’s answer to the growing attacks on women globally, with the US Supreme Court decision on 24 June to overrule the constitutional right to abortion being the latest and most shocking example. The right to legal and safe abortion must be formally recognised as a fundamental right in the whole European Union.

The resolution adopted today is also a strong gesture of solidarity with American women and girls. It condemns the Supreme Court ruling, and calls for the US Congress to pass a bill that would protect abortion at federal level.

Heléne Fritzon MEP, S&D vice-president responsible for women’s right, said:

“The US Supreme Court decision to overturn the right to abortion is a devastating development and an attack on women’s fundamental rights everywhere. It teaches us a lesson: women’s and girls’ human rights can never be taken for granted and we must always fight to defend them.

“The EU needs to lead by example and protect its women. Therefore, we are calling on the Council to urgently include the right to safe and legal abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Every woman in Europe must have the right to decide over her own body - it is not a question of politics, opinions or religion. It is, and always must remain, a person’s free choice.

“S&Ds has been a champion of women’s rights in Europe for decades, insisting that sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are fundamental human rights. We will not stop until everyone has the right to safe and legal abortion.”

Maria Noichl MEP, S&D coordinator in FEMM committee, added:

“What has happened in the US in not an isolated incident or something that happened accidently. For years, right wing conservative forces worldwide have been manipulating women’s rights and funding anti-gender movements, including in the EU. We must not tolerate this anymore. We must ban this malign, deliberate foreign interference in our democracies. We must protect women!

“We have witnessed heart-breaking consequences of restrictive or criminalising laws on abortion in Europe. Two weeks ago, Andrea Prudente, an American tourist, was banned from having an abortion in Malta in spite of her life being in danger. Human rights defender Justyna Wydrzyńska has been charged and now faces three years in prison under Poland’s draconian anti-abortion law for having provided medical abortion pills to another woman. These and many other cases should not have happened in the EU.

“That is why we call for a legal and safe abortion to become a fundamental right in the EU!”