Widening Access to Abortion

A Christian legal rights group -- the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) -- is opposing moves by European lawmakers that would allow women to travel to another country on the continent to obtain abortions under a “My Voice My Choice” (MVMC) initiative. The MVMC initiative was submitted to the European Commission on Sept. 1, 2025. The European Parliament then held a public hearing and, on Dec. 17, voted in favor of the measure.

The European Parliament then invited the European Commission to consider an opt-in financial mechanism, supported by EU funding, to help finance and facilitate cross-border access to abortion in accordance with the domestic laws of participating member states. 

More than 170 civil society organizations from all 27 European Union (EU) member states have sent a joint letter to the European Commission calling for a positive and decisive response to the plan aimed at widening access to abortion services.  

According to the ECLJ, this could allow a French woman who is between 14 and 22 weeks pregnant — outside France’s legal time limit — to travel to the Netherlands for an abortion.

Abortions for children diagnosed with Down syndrome are illegal in Poland, but under the proposed rules, a Polish woman carrying an unborn child with Down syndrome could travel to France for an abortion, with funding from the EU. 

The ECLJ called the plan “scandalous,” and Grégor Puppinck, director of the ECLJ, sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission; Stéphane Séjourné, former French minister and vice president of the commission; and the 25 other European commissioners, denouncing the strategy and what he described as an infringement of state sovereignty on this issue.

“The commission’s assessment of the MVMC initiative concerns a proposal that would place Union financial instruments at the service of facilitating access to abortion, including through measures that risk circumventing national legislative frameworks adopted through democratic processes,” wrote Puppinck. “Such an approach would involve using Union action to neutralize or bypass national law in an area of profound moral sensitivity that remains primarily within the responsibility of the member states.”

According to Puppinck, pursuing this course would risk a loss of credibility with citizens and member states opposed to abortion.

Puppinck, writing on behalf of the ECLJ, outlined five reasons why the initiative should be rejected. First, the limits of EU competence and the principle of subsidiarity in matters relating to abortion. Second, the absence of a recognized right to abortion under European and international human rights law. Third, the institutional context and impartial assessment in which the MVMC initiative has been developed and promoted. Fourth, the medical, psychological, and social implications of abortion for women. Fifth, consistency and procedural fairness in the commission’s treatment of ideologically opposed European Citizens’ Initiatives (ECIs), notably in comparison with the One of Us initiative.

Biblical Connection: Genesis 1:27 reminds us that God created all of mankind in His own image and Psalms 139:14 tells us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” It is hard to imagine that Europe has walked away from its Christian roots to such an extent that it would subsidize abortion, but that is exactly where we are.

PRAY: Pray for European nations to recognize the sanctity of life and stop endorsing the murder of the unborn.