Verbatim report of proceedings

Thursday, 14 March 2024 - Strasbourg

Inclusion of the right to abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, it is time for feminists, for progressives and for citizens to ask for what is needed. And in 2024, enshrining sexual and reproductive rights in the heart of our European text is a necessity for the well-being of people and specifically the safety of women. There is no healthy democracy without women’s rights and gender equality. Last November, this Parliament voted to have the inclusion of these rights in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and it is good to reaffirm it today.

But why be less ambitious? We have to reclaim the entirety of our rights and to counter the narrative of the far right and those who want to make us live in fear.

Bodily autonomy comes with contraception. Bodily autonomy comes with sexual education. The health of women can no longer be less of a priority for academics and doctors. Ignorance has always been a poison used to control a population. Of course we need abortion. Abortion gives women the power to choose their own lives. This is not a discussion. There are still too many women at risk of dying, or having to flee their country to find a solution, or seeing their life dramatically impacted by an unwanted pregnancy in the European Union. Yes!

But this is a societal and democratic issue, not a woman’s problem. All people, no matter what their sex and gender, should know their body. So this is how to protect it. How to heal it. The nature of desire. What is consent? This is what we need. We need full and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights without discrimination, including, indeed, access to safe and legal abortion.