EU lawmakers called on Thursday to add access to abortion to a body of laws enshrining human and legal rights in the European Union in a vote in Strasbourg, France, writes MIA.
“Every woman in Europe must have the right to decide over her own body,” Heléne Fritzon, a Swedish EU legislator from the centre-left Socialists and Democrats parliament group, said in a statement.
“It is not a question of politics, opinions or religion. It is, and always must remain, a person’s free choice,” she added.
The European Parliament vote was called in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs Wade – a landmark legal case that guaranteed abortion access across the United States. EU lawmakers also expressed solidarity with women and girls in the US in addition to including the right to abortion to the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The vote called on EU member states to decriminalize abortion and remove existing obstacles to access. 324 EU lawmakers voted in favour, 155 opposed and 38 EU legislators abstained. Abortion access in the EU came under the spotlight after an American women in Malta was forced to travel to Mallorca, Spain, to secure the procedure after suffering a miscarriage. The tiny Mediterranean island is the only EU country with a total abortion ban.
