“Denial of abortion is a form of discrimination against women because it withholds a service that only women need.” -Genova Tisheva, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
The right to abortion is a fundamental human rights issue. Yet across Europe, these rights are far from guaranteed. While the vast majority of EU countries have laws and policies that enable access to abortion care and 20 countries have removed certain abortion restrictions in the last decade, there are regressive trends that are increasingly restricting the right to abortion in some countries including Italy, Hungary and Poland, with Poland and Malta being the only EU countries that have not reformed their restricted laws. Barriers to access take many forms. High costs, mandatory waiting periods, social stigma, and restrictive legal frameworks all prevent people from receiving timely care. As a result, around 20 million people in Europe do not have access to safe abortion services, and every year, more than 5,000 European women are forced to cross borders in order to obtain safe abortion care elsewhere.
Reproductive rights in the EU are not guaranteed
Women’s reproductive rights are human rights. However, for many European women these rights are severely restricted. While most EU countries have legalized abortion on request, states often still fail to make sure that this right can be fully enjoyed. In practice, there often remain procedural and regulatory obstacles that impede access to abortion even when it is legal.
For example, in some countries, doctors are allowed to refuse carrying out abortion on grounds of conscience and religion. This often results in delays or denial of care for women seeking access to legal abortion. Furthermore, doctors who do perform abortion in this context often fall victim to discrimination and (in)direct labor disadvantages. In Italy, the inadequate implementation of legislation on conscientious objection led to a situation in which 70% of gynecologists were conscientious objectors in 2009. More recently, the country even adopted a law allowing anti-abortion organizations to operate within public hospitals.
Mandatory waiting periods serve as another example of unnecessary obstacles to abortion care. For example, in Belgium the law states that a period of at least 6 days must be observed between the first consultation and the start of the treatment. This leads to unnecessary anxiety by prolonging an already difficult decision, impedes women’s autonomous decision making and results in medically unnecessary delays.
These barriers, combined with restrictive time limits for legal abortion, often force women to travel across borders to access safe care. This situation particularly disadvantages vulnerable women with fewer resources to travel, as well as increases the incidence of unsafe abortions. Ultimately, this could deprive women who are denied access to abortion in their local region of any effective opportunity to exercise their legal entitlement to such services.
Consequences of criminalizing abortion
Across Europe, we are witnessing renewed attempts to roll back abortion rights and increase criminal penalties related to abortion care. In many contexts, criminalization means that medical professionals—or anyone assisting a woman in obtaining an abortion—may face sanctions ranging from fines to imprisonment.
However, criminalizing abortion does not reduce nor prevent its incidence. On the contrary, it is associated with delays in necessary care and more unsafe procedures. Restrictive laws also foster a climate of fear and stigma that can seriously harm women’s health and wellbeing. According to the World Health Organization, the inaccessibility of quality abortion care risks violating a range of fundamental human rights, including the right to life; the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the right to benefit from scientific progress; the right to decide freely and responsibly on the number, spacing, and timing of children; and the right to be free from torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
In Poland, women and girls have faced severe human rights violations as a result of highly restrictive abortion laws. According to UN women’s rights experts, these restrictions have contributed to several preventable deaths. In addition, CEDAW Vice-Chair Genova Tisheva stated that the situation in Poland constitutes gender-based violence against women and may rise to the level of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Even though abortion is allowed when the woman’s life or health is at risk, or when the pregnancy is the consequence of a crime, doctors still remain hesitant to perform abortions due to fears of criminal liability.
International human rights bodies increasingly recognize access to safe abortion as integral to health, dignity, equality, and non-discrimination. Amid renewed efforts to weaken protections in this area, it is essential to reaffirm and strengthen commitment to these fundamental rights.
European Citizens’ Initiative “My Voice, My Choice”
As a response to the deep inequalities in access to abortion across the European Union, civil society organisations and feminist movements have stepped up pressure to turn the right to abortion into a reality for all. At the centre of this effort is “My Voice, My Choice”, a coalition of more than 300 organisations that launched a European Citizens’ Initiative urging the EU to create a financial mechanism to support safe abortion care. The proposal calls on Brussels to help Member States that voluntarily opt in to provide services to people who cannot access them in their home countries.
After gathering more than 1.1 million signatures the committee received support from the European Economic and Social Committee of the European Parliament. On 26th of March 2026, the European Commission decided to back the initiative. However, it will not create a new EU-wide funding scheme to expand abortion access. Instead, it allows Member States to use the European Social Fund Plus, in line with their national laws, to finance these services. Feminist organisations describe the decision as a political breakthrough because it acknowledges abortion access as a European issue. Yet, they also point out its limits: without a dedicated funding scheme, responsibility remains largely in the hands of national governments, where access continues to vary significantly from one country to another.
Sources:
Center for Reproductive Rights. (2025). Europe Abortion Laws 2025: Policies, Progress and Challenges. https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Europe-Abortion-Laws-2025-1.pdf
Center for Reproductive Rights. (2026, 9 januari). Abortion Laws in Europe 2025 – Center for Reproductive Rights. Center For Reproductive Rights. https://reproductiverights.org/europe-abortion-laws-2025/
De Londras, F., Cleeve, A., Rodriguez, M. I., Farrell, A., Furgalska, M., & Lavelanet, A. (2022). The impact of criminalisation on abortion-related outcomes: a synthesis of legal and health evidence. BMJ Global Health, 7(12), e010409. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010409
EPF – homepage. (2025, 6 november). EPF. https://www.epfweb.org/
Exporting Abortion | JournalismFund Europe. (2026, 15 januari). Journalismfund Europe. https://www.journalismfund.eu/exporting-abortion
Mandatory waiting period – Luna. (z.d.). https://abortus.be/en/abortion-care/mandatory-waiting-period/
Our movement | My Voice, My Choice. (z.d.). My Voice, My Choice. https://www.myvoice-mychoice.org/our-movement
World Health Organization: WHO. (2025, 8 december). Abortion. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion