Landmark European Citizens' Initiative: Commission Greenlights "My Voice, My Choice for Safe and Accessible Abortion"
- My Voice, My Choive
- Apr 10, 2024
- 2 min read
The European Commission has officially registered our European Citizens' Initiative (ECI), "My Voice, My Choice: For Safe and Accessible Abortion."
“We can see a lot of sadness and despair around the globe. With My Voice, My Choice we decided to bring hope, to create a movement built on cooperation and solidarity, a movement for reproductive rights in Europe. We want to ensure that every woman has a right to free and accessible abortion. We know that a different Europe, Europe that takes care of everybody and leaves nobody behind, is possible and we want to co-create it.” said Nika Kovač, the director of the Slovenian Institute 8th of March and coordinator of the My Voice, My Choice campaign.
Alice Coffin, a French activist and one of the leaders of the movement in France: “Today’s registration of the My Voice, My Choice ECI is an acknowledgement of the importance and emergency of changing Europe's landscape on abortion. This is a huge first step, we will not stop until all the others are completed. So many people in France are already ready to lead this fight in solidarity!”
My Voice, My Choice ECI: EU must turn from words to actions on reproductive rights
The fact that the European Commission has officially registered the My Voice, My Choice ECI has highlighted that the EU can provide more than just token support for abortion rights in the EU. The time for more expressions of solidarity and superficial actions for Polish women and others suffering from the lack of access to safe abortion care has passed. European institutions have ignored them for too long, preferring symbolic gestures over concrete actions. This lack of action by EU politicians goes against the Union's fundamental values and fails to fulfil its obligation to safeguard human rights.
That is why citizens, activists and organizations from all over Europe came together to change this. The My Voice, My Choice ECI proposes concrete solutions and demands their implementation through the democratic tools that the EU has given to its citizens. “Because the EU and its politicians didn’t, we the citizens of Europe had to act. Improving access to safe abortion for millions of women across Europe should be a top priority of the EU.” said Nika Kovač.
The voices for international solidarity from the "My Voice, My Choice" movement
“We’re overjoyed to hear that the registration is now complete”, says Fatim Diarra, chair of the Finnish Women’s Association. “We have already witnessed a huge wave of solidarity in Finland for European abortion rights. We cannot wait to start collecting signatures to show this solidarity in practice.” The sentiment spreads across Europe. “The National Women's Council is delighted to represent Ireland in this European Citizen's Initiative,” expresses Doireann Crosson, NWC's Women's Health Coordinator. “We see this campaign as an opportunity to ensure politicians and legislators recognize that safe, timely, and accessible abortion services are fundamental in a modern health care system.”
1 million signatures for protecting and advancing abortion rights in Europe
We have an ambitious goal of becoming the fastest ECI to collect 1 million signatures. We want to collect them before the 2024 EU elections that will take place between 6 and 9 June 2024. And with this creates a direct demand for the new EU Parliament and Commission.
