STRASBOURG, France, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The EU's parliament voted on Wednesday in favour of a scheme that would enable women from nations restricting abortion to terminate pregnancies in another member state free of charge.
The "My Voice, My Choice" citizens' initiative proposes a fund from the EU budget to cover procedures for people from nations with near-total bans such as Malta and Poland or places where abortion is hard to access like Italy and Croatia.
While the trend in Europe has been towards more accessibility for abortions, with the UK decriminalising it and France making it a constitutional freedom, there has been a surge in support for far-right parties, many of which oppose abortion.
After the parliament vote of 358 for and 202 against, the European Commission is to decide in March whether to adopt the proposal, though other citizens' initiatives have not been entirely successful.
Proponents of the initiative, including abortion rights campaigners and some members of parliament (MEPs) from the left to centre-right, say it should reduce unsafe practices and help women lacking funds for a procedure abroad.
Critics, including far-right and somecentre-right MEPs, say the proposal interferes in national laws and traditional Christian values.
'EU STANDS BY WOMEN'
"Today we show the world, but above all our citizens, that the EU stands by women. The EU stands for gender equality, and the EU is not afraid to fulfil all human rights, also women's human rights," Swedish MEP Abir Sahlani of the centrist Renew Europe group told reporters in Strasbourg.
In the lead-up, opponents held events with anti-abortion rights federation One of Us and the European Centre for Law and Justice, an offshoot of theAmerican Center for Law and Justice, which litigates on abortion cases, and was involved in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of the landmark Roe v Wade case.
The groups organised two conferences at the European Parliament criticising the proposal and pushing for the European Commission to offer more support for maternity and not abortion.
"Sending women to countries that are more liberal is an attack on national order," said Elisabeth Dieringer of the far-right Patriots for Europe group, in a parliamentary debate on the eve of the vote. "This ideological abuse of power is something that we're not going to accept at EU level."
(Reporting by Layli Foroudi in Strasbourg and Paul Carsten in Berlin; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
