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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PASSES RESOLUTION CALLING FOR ALL EUROPE TO
LEGALIZE ABORTION
Bashes Bush
administration's Mexico City Policy
STRASBOURG, July 3, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The European Parliament voted 280
to 240 (with 28 abstentions) today to adopt a resolution calling on
all member nations, and those seeking European Union membership to
provide abortion. The resolution, known as the Van Lancker report
after the Belgian MEP who drafted it, says "in order to safeguard
women's reproductive health and rights, abortion should be made legal,
safe and accessible to all."
The document calls on Europe to "promote emergency contraception" and
goes so far as to demand that abortifacient drugs be available
"over-the-counter and at affordable prices, as standard practice
within sexual and reproductive health care." It calls on governments
to allow fertility treatments for homosexual couples by asking them to
"provide access to sexual and reproductive health services without any
discrimination based on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender
identity or marital status."
Notably, the report bashes the Bush administration's Mexico City
Policy banning funds to abortion-promoting groups and calls on the
European Commission to "fill in the budgetary gap provoked by the
Mexico City Policy."
Euro-fam, the European pro-life group which has closely monitored the
European Parliament, notes that while the report does not have the
force of law, it does have interpretative force. It notes that since
the report specifically includes abortion in "reproductive health
services" the EU position on interpreting international documents with
that language may now include abortion.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/jul/02070301.html
See the full EP resolution on line at:
http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A5-2002-0223+0+DOC+
XML+V0//EN&L=EN&LEVEL=3&NAV=S&LSTDOC=Y
See the Euro-Fam evaluation of the report:
http://www.euro-fam.org/spip/article.php3?id_article=63
See the EP press release on the resolution:
http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/OM-Europarl?PROG=PRESS-DAILYNB&L=EN&PUBREF=-//EP//TEX
T+PRESS-DAILYNB+DN-20020703-1+0+DOC+SGML+V0//EN&LEVEL=1&REFERER=X&NAV=X#SECTION10
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