The European Commission yesterday gave its backing to the request of the pro-abortion lobby “My Voice My Choice” for EU taxpayers’ money to be used to cover cross-border travel for individuals seeking abortions in other member states.

While the Commission rejected the call to set up a new financing scheme specifically to fund EU wide abortions, it confirmed that member states can use EU social funds to cover the costs for women travelling from countries with abortion restrictions in order to access terminations abroad.

The decision undermines legal protections for the unborn child that exist in different member states, particularly in places like Malta, where the right-to-life of the unborn child continues to enjoy strong protection under the law.

The consequences of EU social funds being used to pay for abortions would be the hollowing out of any national safeguards that exist to protect unborn babies. If the European Commission decision stands, laws adopted democratically within member states would in effect be rendered meaningless if they can simply be bypassed with EU financial backing. Far from respecting subsidiarity, the facilitation of abortion in this way would over time put pressure on countries to conform to the most permissive abortion regimes in the Union – which is, in fact, the stated objective of the pro-abortion alliance “My Voice My Choice” that pushed for the changes.

The decision represents a disturbing overreach and warrants strong pushback from across the EU. Even though they deny it, with this decision the European Commission is effectively encroaching on the rights of member states to determine their own laws and has no right to misuse taxpayers’ money in this way to advance its own hand-picked projects, especially when those projects involve the ending of innocent human lives.