In a move that signals a growing effort to impose abortion access across Europe by indirect means, the European Parliament voted to endorse a proposal that would use European Union funds to underwrite abortion travel — despite the EU’s lack of authority over national abortion law.

The European Parliament on Dec. 17 approved a resolution endorsing the pro-abortion “My Voice, My Choice” petition initiative.  The vote was 358-202, with 79 members abstaining.  The endorsement sends the proposal to the European Commission, the EU’s real powerbroker, which must give its response and, if positive, propose measures to address the initiative.

Under the division of powers within the EU, abortion legislation clearly lies within the competence of member states.  Most EU countries have permissive abortion laws, though they also generally have upper gestational limits.  Poland and Malta currently have the most pro-life laws in Europe.

Unable to interfere directly with national abortion legislation, the “My Voice, My Choice” initiative aims at circumventing restrictions by proposing the EU create and finance an EU-wide fund to pay for travel by women from countries with abortion restrictions to procure them in more permissive countries.  In practice, that would generally mean funding travel by Polish and Maltese women to other countries.

It also means pro-life countries will indirectly subsidize travel because, while national contributions to the abortion travel program are voluntary, the initiative commits the EU financially to help such countries “to compensate for the weight of this solidarity effort.” Since EU funds generally come from all member countries and money is fungible, it is difficult not to see how all member states will be, directly or indirectly, paying for the program.

Because “free movement of peoples” is considered one of the foundational rights of the European Union, it is claimed that states cannot interfere with accessing “services” legal in other EU member states.  The European Court of Justice recently invoked a creative application of “free movement of peoples” to require EU member countries that do not recognize same-sex marriage nevertheless to register them if contracted in another EU country where they are legal.

The “My Voice, My Choice” initiative also asserts that guarantees of the European “right to respect for … physical and mental integrity” as well as EU-wide responsibilities to “protect and improve human health” entitle Brussels to intervene.  It further claims that, absent funding for abortion travel, women of lesser means who cannot access abortion in an EU country where it is legal face unlawful “discrimination.”  Finally, it also claims that where abortion is illegal and women face “judgmental attitudes” about it, such conditions “may ‘amount to torture or ill-treatment’” prohibited by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

“My Voice, My Choice” is a petition initiative by citizens across the EU, a mechanism by which Europeans can bring legislative proposals directly to Brussels. The petition gathered 1.1 million signatures across the EU in 2024-25.  It also received €923,000 (approximately $1.08 million) in contributions.  The government of Slovenia claims the initiative is Slovenian-led.

France recently declared abortion a matter of constitutional right; Spain may follow.  French President Emmanuel Macron has called on the EU to incorporate an explicit right to abortion into its fundamental documents, which could then override national laws.