Strasbourg, 22/10/13 (Agence Europe) - MEPs are divided over the question of abortion and on Tuesday 22 October, they decided to send back the report by Edite Estrela (S&D, Portugal) on sexual health and reproductive rights to the Parliamentary committee on women's rights and equal opportunities for examination. The vote on sending it back to the committee was very close (351 votes for its referral, 319 against, with 18 abstentions). The European Parliament therefore did not vote on the report this Tuesday.
Part of the report tackles the question of access to contraception and abortion, and stated that abortion services should be made legal in all member states, even for women who were not residents in them. The approach argued by Estrela particularly shocked conservatives and Marina Yannakoudakis (ECR, United Kingdom) said that the EU should not impose its diktats on all aspects of our lives. Conservatives called for the report to be referred back to the Parliamentary committee. The Parliamentary committee vote was less close (17 votes in favour of the report, 7 against, with 7 abstentions). Conservatives also criticised the report for advocating that sex education courses in primary schools should be compulsory.
The rapporteur accused the Conservatives of dragging women's rights backwards by thirty years. Estrela said that the vote was unacceptable and that the social democrats would stand firm and defend women's rights to abortion and access to quality health care services. (MD/trans.fl)