European Repro Round Up 2024 

European Repro Round Up 2024

It’s about time we checked in on the state on reproductive freedoms across Europe… Since our last European Repro Round Up in 2021, there’s been a general trend across the continent towards liberalising reproductive rights – particularly marked by France’s constitutional protection of abortion and the EU’s addition of abortion to its Charter of Fundamental Rights. In this round up, we track these developments, noting how they have developed in response toa hostile international landscape in the context of the attempted erasure of reproductive care in the United States. We consider how Europe’s (generally liberalising) responses differentiate and manifest in a variety of conditions of accessand criminalisation between countries, shedding light on work to be done whilst celebrating milestones. 

Exciting developments

In March 2024, France enshrined the right to abortion to its constitution, becoming the first country to ever explicitly do so. This landmark vote – with overwhelming support from the senate and public – was prompted in direct response to an ever increasingly hostile rollback of reproductive rights in the US. Including the right to abortion in the constitution better protects it as a human right – as the constitution is a much trickier piece of legislation to meddle with than standard laws are. France has set a world class standard in protecting reproductive rights from the anti’s agenda. The world is watching… Here’s hoping other countries take note and follow suit! 

Hopes are high in this regard as, in April 2024, the European Union’s Parliament approved a resolution to add access to abortion to the E.U.’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. The EU is actively calling on countries with the toughest restrictionsto lift their archaic limitations – a deeply significant step. 

In light of this, Germany is considering significant changes to its abortion laws following the publication of a report in April 2024 by an expert commission on reproductive self-determination and reproductive medicine. Abortion is currently illegal in Germany, except under specific circumstances such as danger to life, or being a victim of rape, while the prerequisite for any termination is a consultation with a state-recognised body. The commission has excitingly recommended removing abortion from criminal law entirely.In addition to these promising developments, a bill is currently making its way through the German parliament that, if passed, would outlaw the intimidation of people, whether staff or patients, in areas around clinics offering abortion.

Simultaneously, Polish lawmakers approved four amendments to Poland’s abortion laws in a first reading in April 2024. Poland’s 2020 ruling outlawed abortions due to foetal defects, effectively imposing a ban from early 2021, except in cases of rape, incest, or threats to the pregnant person’s life. In the words of Amnesty International’s Miko Czerwiński: “As these amendments go through to the next voting stage, it is crucial that politicians listen to the voices of civil society and those people directly affected by the near total ban on abortion and bring the law into compliance with international human rights standards. Decriminalizing abortion is essential to ensuring all people who need abortion services, as well as abortion providers, activists and advocates, are not threatened with criminal consequences for accessing, assisting someone to access, or delivering abortion services.”  These developments are particularly crucial as the war in Ukraine continues to displace countless people across Europe, the majority of which are women and children who face grave threats to their human rights, including a dangerous lack of access to essential reproductive healthcare. Organisations such as the Center for Reproductive Rights are identifying and addressing barriers to abortion, emergency contraception, and maternal health services in both Ukraine itself and neighbouring European countries to which refugees are fleeing – including Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. We need to actively promote universal, localised and decriminalised access to abortion internationally. 

Stubborn barriers to access

Hungary and Malta still maintain bans on abortion in almost all circumstances. For example, Hungary’s laws tightened in 2022, with a cruel and manipulative requirement that patients listen to the foetal heartbeat and attend compulsory counselling as conditions for accessing abortion care. Meanwhile, Maltese lawmakers unanimously approved legislation to ease their strict abortion laws in 2023, voting to allow terminations – but only in cases where the pregnant person’s life is at risk. Under the amendments, however, a risk to health is not enough. They must be at risk of death to access an abortion, and even then only after three specialists consent.

Barriers to access also remain rife even in countries in which abortion is more liberally legal. For example, abortion is legal in Italy, but access remains uneven, with many doctors continuing to refuse to perform abortions on the grounds ofconscientious objection. Under the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni anti-abortion groups with ‘qualified experience supporting motherhood’ can enter centres where those considering abortion are receiving counselling. Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, where abortion was legalized in 2019, the implementation of serviceprovision has been excruciatingly slow. Almost five years of delays to the provision of comprehensive abortion servicesincur unnecessary harm and barriers to access, forcing preganant people to board planes to England to seek care. Reproductive healthcare cannot only be delivered in legal promises – it must manifest in practice too.  

Looking forwards: holistic advocacy  

There is hope – people are standing up for the right to reproductive healthcare across Europe. Let’s keep fighting – take action and show solidarity where you can. Change can and will come – and it is central to remember that it should not only take the form of institutional legislation. The fight for genuine freedom absolutely does not begin and end with bureaucracy. True reproductive freedom does not come from a singular focus on abortion nor legality but instead must be developed from localised understandings of how communities are impacted by other conditions to which reproductive healthcare interconnects (examples of which include housing, welfare systems, climate change, immigration policies). So, keep informed, connect with others, and make your diverse needs heard loud and clear. 

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By Lily Roberts

Lily Roberts is a reproductive justice campaigner and sociologist with a record of academic specialism and impact on pro-abortion campaign development and communications.