On April 11, 2024, the European Parliament voted (336 for, 163 against and 39 abstentions) for a resolution to amend Article 3 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union to include the right to abortion.

Although European Parliament resolutions are not binding, they nevertheless reflect the official position of the legislative body if a majority of MEPs vote for them. The Charter of Fundamental Rights does bind member states, but only if the matters in question fall within the competence of the European Union, which is not the case for abortion. Finally, to amend the Charter, the amendment proposed in the Parliament resolution must be adopted in the law of the Treaties of the European Union.

This requires that all member states agree to the amendment and ratify it in accordance with their own national constitutions.

Given national differences on this issue, this is unlikely to happen. Nonetheless, the adoption of such a resolution reflects a repeated desire to encourage member states to liberalize abortion even further by considering it a right rather than from the standpoint of prevention.

In its current version, Section 3 of the Charter protects the right to bodily and mental integrity. Parliament proposes to add “bodily autonomy” with the intention of ensuring “free, informed, full and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights and all related health care services, including safe and legal abortion.” The House therefore urges states to make abortion legal, with no conditions regarding the health of the woman or unborn child.

Along these lines, it also addresses countries that have already largely decriminalized abortion and calls on them to move toward “full decriminalization.” Based on the WHO 2022 guidelines, it calls on member states to “remove and combat obstacles to safe and legal abortion,” believing that “denying access to abortion care violates these fundamental rights.”