8
Jun
2022
Watch
Global threats to abortion rights: the possible overturn of abortion rights in the US by the Supreme Court (debate)
Madam President, criminalising abortion criminalises women and girls, it risks the lives and health of women and girls, and it ends up in backstreet abortions and bathroom abortions. Roe v. Wade was a fundamental decision of a court at a time that conferred rights on women, and we must not deny that there is a backsliding of women’s rights across many Member States in this Union as well. We have to stand up and stand in solidarity with women in countries where there is a fundamental breach of their basic human rights in terms of access to health care, abortion care and sexual and reproductive health care as well. Ireland had a ban on abortion, but we had abortions every day of the week for years, even though we had a ban, because they got on the plane and they went to the UK. They went to other countries in Europe as well. So be under no illusions, the idea that you’re banning abortions in a Member State, in this country, in this Union means only one thing – they are going elsewhere, and you are putting their lives at risk. We must stand with them!