After the Supreme Court rolled back reproductive rights for women across the nation, the decision shocked and angered the world. The fallout has sparked massive reactions across Europe, including huge protests and calls for explicit reproductive freedom.
Europeans are calling for their countries to enshrine the right to abortion into their nations’ constitutions.
The Supreme Court overturned the landmark previous Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade, which was a decision half a century ago that said women have a right to an abortion under the constitution.
The now massively conservative Supreme Court took away that right a couple of weeks ago.
Twenty-six states geared up to enforce “trigger laws” after the ruling, which automatically saw abortion become illegal.
Abortion rights advocates and legal experts in Europe saw it as a warning to protect those rights across the Atlantic.
Caroline Hickson, the Regional Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) in Belgium, said the decision was shocking in its cruelty and its disregard for human rights and freedoms.
“When fundamentalists force their twisted ideologies onto people’s bodies and deny them life-saving healthcare, there are always tragic consequences,” Hickson said.
“Women will suffer. Women will die.”
She also warned that this ruling would embolden governments who want to reverse progress in women’s rights and health. But many countries are taking steps in order to make abortion access easier for women.
The Netherlands, which has legalized abortion since 1984, has removed its five-day waiting period for women to get an abortion, for example. France has a law that women can seek an abortion up to the tenth week of pregnancy, but now politicians from all sides are fighting to make abortion a constitutional right.
Finland is also working towards loosening its laws and providing new access laws for women. Currently, women require two statements from medical professionals as well as a social or financial reason, but now, the country is fighting for women to not need a “reason”, and stating one medical professional statement is enough.
In Germany, lawmakers overturned a law that banned advertisements for abortions, saying that women’s rights need t one defended resolutely.
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