Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper), The European Commission has officially registered the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) titled “My Voice, My Choice: For Safe and Accessible Abortion.”
This initiative, spearheaded by the “My Voice, My Choice” movement, is said to represent a significant step forward for reproductive rights in Europe.
Driven by the conviction that abortion is an “integral component of comprehensive healthcare services and that the right to choose is a fundamental human right”, the ECI proposed by the “My Voice, My Choice” movement.
This is a coalition of activists, organizations, and citizens across Europe who are dedicated to securing access to reproductive rights – calls upon the European Union to “take decisive action” to aid the 20 million women in the EU who lack access to safe abortion care.
The proposed EU legislation aims to establish a financial mechanism that would assist Member States in providing safe and legal abortion services, thereby addressing the needless suffering and fatalities resulting from inadequate access.
Nika Kovac, Director of the Slovenian Institute 8th of March and coordinator of the My Voice, My Choice campaign, expressed the movement’s vision, stating, “We can see a lot of sadness and despair around the globe. With My Voice, My Choice we decided to bring hope, to create a movement built on cooperation and solidarity, a movement for reproductive rights in Europe. We want to ensure that every woman has a right to free and accessible abortion. We know that a different Europe, a Europe that takes care of everybody and leaves nobody behind, is possible and we want to co-create it.”
French activist Alice Coffin, a key leader of the movement in France, emphasized the urgency of the initiative, stating, “Today’s registration of the My Voice, My Choice ECI is an acknowledgment of the importance and emergency of changing Europe’s landscape on abortion. This is a huge first step, we will not stop until all the others are completed. So many people in France are already ready to lead this fight in solidarity!”
Both said the registration of the My Voice, My Choice ECI by the European Commission serves as a “reminder that the EU can offer substantive support for abortion rights. European institutions must prioritize concrete measures to address the pressing needs of women in Europe who lack access to safe abortion care. Failure to do so undermines the Union’s fundamental values and obligations to safeguard human rights,” they said.
A statement from the alliance added, “The fact that the European Commission has officially registered the My Voice, My Choice ECI has highlighted that the EU can provide more than just token support for abortion rights in the EU. The time for more expressions of solidarity and superficial actions for Polish women and others suffering from the lack of access to safe abortion care has passed. European institutions have ignored them for too long, preferring symbolic gestures over concrete actions. This lack of action by EU politicians goes against the Union’s fundamental values and fails to fulfill its obligation to safeguard human rights.”
“That is why citizens, activists, and organizations from all over Europe came together to change this. The My Voice, My Choice ECI proposes concrete solutions and demands their implementation through the democratic tools that the EU has given to its citizens. “Because the EU and its politicians didn’t, we the citizens of Europe had to act. Improving access to safe abortion for millions of women across Europe should be a top priority of the EU,” said Kovač.
“We’re overjoyed to hear that the registration is now complete”, says Fatim Diarra, chair of the Finnish Women’s Association. “We have already witnessed a huge wave of solidarity in Finland for European abortion rights. We cannot wait to start collecting signatures to show this solidarity in practice.”
