SLOVENIA, December 10 - The FEMM committee upheld the non-binding draft resolution of the European Parliament for safe and accessible abortions in a 26:12 vote.

The resolution calls on the European Commission to set up a financial mechanism enabling member states to provide safe abortions to all women in the EU who cannot access them due to national legislation.

The European Parliament is expected to consider and vote on the resolution at the plenary next Thursday in Strasbourg.

"I believe the figures speak for themselves, we got a huge majority again," said the initiative coordinator Nika Kovač from the 8 March Institute, adding that they won despite the attempts by their opponents to stop them.

"The last few days we, the members of the institute, did not sleep, we made calls, organised meetings, we tried and we won again," she said.

Kovač did not want to speculate on the vote in the European Parliament but said that the initiators had some difficult days ahead.

FEMM members stressed at the session that in many parts of Europe women do not have full access to abortions, which exposes them to financial and mental pressures and risk of bodily injury. They called on member states to amend national legislation on abortions to align with international human rights standards and public health guidelines.

They also advocated for the right to abortion to be included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

The committee already voted on the initiative in the start of November, when the vote was held in line with the procedure for an oral question to the Commission.

Now the proposal was considered in accordance with the procedure for adopting a parliamentary position on European citizens' initiatives, which is why the committee had to vote on it again.

The 8 March Institute submitted the initiative to the European Commission on 1 September along with more than 1,120,000 signatures of EU citizens. The Commission must respond to the citizens' initiative by the end of March 2026.

Source: STA