Cav's Place

Back in December, when the European Parliament voted in favor of the My Voice, My Choice European Citizens’ Initiative, I was saying that it was little more than a declaration of intent, and a particularly unambitious one at that, since it’s the approval of the European Commission that’s actually needed. And that didn’t exactly seem likely until the last moment. But it actually came, so the measure is set to be implemented.
But, as I said, it’s a particularly unambitious one, since the demand was not for abortion to be allowed all over the European Union, in fact the Initiative even explicitly stating that it does not seek to change national laws in any way, but only for the creation of a voluntary, opt-in financial mechanism to help countries provide abortion care to women who can’t access it in their own country and choose to travel to said other countries for it. And no new financial mechanism was created for it, the implementation being set to be through the ESF+ mechanism. Admittedly, with the details of the actual implementation being set to follow, using an existing mechanism may remove a hurdle and some delays. But, even when it comes to so little, the real question remains which countries will choose to take part and when.
Admittedly, considering how narrowly it managed to gain the necessary political support, this lack of ambition was the only reason why the Initiative met with success, and why its demands were fully met, albeit through an existing mechanism, while other successful ECIs were implemented partially at best. But while some would argue that this means that this is the way to go, I’ll continue to firmly disagree. Is it better to obtain something rather than nothing at all? Maybe, for the moment. And, taken as a stage victory, it does show a sign of support in a certain direction. But what about later? What about what’s necessary? What if what is obtained is far from enough, so it doesn’t solve the problem but may appear that it does and reduce the pressure to demand and do more?
In this particular case, I’ll say again that, even if many countries, and those that border others where abortion is banned or severely restricted in particular, will opt into the mechanism, requiring women to travel abroad for a procedure that’s traumatic in itself is hardly a solution. And another serious question remains what will happen to them once they’ll return to their home countries and what they did will become known. And I’m not just referring to any potential legal repercussions, but also to other, less direct, methods that both the authorities and the society from such countries will employ to get back at them. Admittedly, enforcing abortion access all over the European Union wouldn’t prevent such non-legal repercussions either, and would generate a far stronger backlash, but that shouldn’t count against doing what’s right and necessary.