On Tuesday, June 9th, the European Parliament will be asked to vote on the “Noichl report” , that is promoting a twisted understanding of equality through the focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), abortion, free contraception given to minors, among others.
This report – from MEP Maria Noichl (German member of Socialist group) – is proposing a European Parliament Resolution “on the EU Strategy for equality between women and men post 2015”.
SRHR, abortion, contraception:
“26. Calls on the Commission to assist Member States in ensuring high-quality, geographically appropriate and readily accessible services in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights, safe and legal abortion and contraception as well as general health care;”
“34. Underscores that universal access to sexual and reproductive health and the associated rights is a fundamental human right, and calls on the Commission to ensure that European development cooperation adopts an approach based on a human rights; emphasises the importance of family planning services, information and education to reduce maternal and infant mortality (…);” à SRHR include abortion.
Medically assisted procreation:
“28. Calls on the Commission to encourage Member States to enshrine (medical) fertility support as an individual right and to end discrimination in access to fertility treatment and assisted reproduction;”
- This includes medical fertility support for single and lesbian women.
Sexual education
“Calls on Commission and Member States to implement programs on sexual education in schools, counselling and access to contraception to young people”
- The EU has no competence over these areas.
No respect for subsidiarity:
At the Committee vote (FEMM committee) on May 6th, all amendments recalling that abortion, SRHR and sexual education are national issues have been rejected.
One of Us regrets that some groups in Europe abusively and repeatedly go over or against the EU basic principle of subsidiarity. Clear evidence of it was an email sent by the Socialist French government to French MEPs, the French government is asking MEPs to maintain in the Noichl resolution the sentences “about SRHR and access to abortion” even if it is against “the principle of subsidiarity” and even if it’s against the resolution of December 10th 2013 which defeated the Estrela report by stating that “the formulation and implementation of policies on SRHR and on sexual education (…) is a competence of the Member States” and not of the EU, according to the Lisbon Treaty.
The Noichl motion for a resolution is an attack on the principle of subsidiarity and on the division of competences between the EU and the Member States, and is therefore illegal.
The One of Us Federation, born out of the rejection by the European Commission of the most successful European Citizens Initiative that collected over 2 million signatures, supports authentic man-woman equality and calls for a full rejection of the report as such. It urges the EU and European Parliament to listen to the European citizen’s voice and concern at the EU repeated unethical and anti-subsidiarity positions.
We encourage MEPs to demonstrate the European Parliament strongest dedication to human dignity and consequently, to vote in favor of the alternative motion for a resolution.
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The ONE OF US European Federation for Life and Human Dignity is an international non-profit, non-political and non-denominational Federation legally registered under Belgian law.
It is legal entity that strictly differs from the above mentioned European Citizen’s initiative and is composed to date by 28 national and local member entities providing care, counsel and advocacy free services to all throughout Europe.
