EU Decides Against Making Abortion a "Human Right"

December 10 is International Human Rights Day. It was also the day the European Parliament voted down a measure that would have mandated that all EU countries declare abortion a "human right."

Two member countries of the EU, Ireland and Malta, have very restrictive abortion laws. While the declaration that abortion is a "human right" would not have necessarily forced these countries to change their laws, it would have put significant pressure on Ireland and Malta to enact a more liberal abortion policy.

Had the EU measure passed, it would have significantly limited a doctor's right to refuse to perform an abortion, and did not take into consideration any kind of gestational limit.

LifeNews reported:

“This measure claims to be a human rights issue yet it fundamentally ignores the human rights of the three key people involved in this tragic act. It ignores the most basic right, the right to life, of the baby at the center of the whole issue. It ignores women’s real needs by hiding them behind the iron curtain of abortion rhetoric. And it ignores the conscience of the doctor, who is being asked to end a human life after spending years training how to preserve it,” Sullivan said. “The European Union should not be asking physicians to suppress their consciences; it should be trying to find its own.”