EU resolution condemns Washington's abortion ruling

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday condemning the United States Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade that gave women the right to safe and legal abortion, and urged to make abortion a fundamental right in the European Union.

The MEPs expressed their solidarity and support for women and girls in the US as well as to those involved in providing and advocating for the right and access to legal and safe abortion care in such challenging circumstances, said the European Parliament in a news release.

"Given this, they call for the US Congress to pass a bill that would protect abortion at federal level," the MEPs said.

The resolution was adopted with 324 in favor, 155 against and 38 abstentions in Strasbourg, France. It is still nonbinding unless all 27 members agree to revise the EU Treaties.

The Socialists and Democrats, or S&D, the second-largest group in parliament, said the resolution adopted is S&D's "answer to the growing attacks on women globally, with the US Supreme Court decision on June 24 to overrule the constitutional right to abortion being the latest and most shocking example".

"It condemns the Supreme Court ruling," said S&D in a statement on Thursday.

S&D Vice-President Helene Fritzon, an MEP from Sweden, said the Supreme Court decision is "a devastating development and an attack on women's fundamental rights everywhere".

"It teaches us a lesson: women's and girls' human rights can never be taken for granted and we must always fight to defend them," she said.

"What has happened in the US is not an isolated incident or something that happened accidentally. For years, right-wing conservative forces worldwide have been manipulating women's rights and funding anti-gender movements, including in the EU," said Maria Noichl, an MEP from Germany.

'Push forward'

Before the three-day debate on the resolution opened on Monday, European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli said the EU "should push forward, not backward" on women's rights.

"Backsliding is not an option for a continent that aims for winning the future," said Dalli, a politician from Malta, the only country in the EU to ban abortion under any circumstances.

Andrea Prudente, a 38-year-old tourist from the US who suffered an incomplete and life-threatening miscarriage, made headlines after she was denied treatment by doctors in Malta and had to be airlifted to Spain.

On Thursday, Maltese MEPs either abstained or voted against the resolution.

Apart from Malta, Poland has a near total ban on abortion, while some member states such as Ireland and Spain have been overhauling abortion laws, rolling back on measures that made it difficult or illegal to access safe care for the procedure.

Far-right groups and some European People's Party members voted against the resolution on Thursday, saying that abortion and reproductive services should be left to individual countries, not the EU.