EURO HYPOCRISY: Leaders Condemn Roe Reversal But Have Stricter Abortion Laws Themselves

EURO HYPOCRISY: Leaders Condemn Roe Reversal But Have Stricter Abortion Laws Themselves

Max Keating on July 8, 2022

Members of the European Parliament voted to condemn the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Thursday, but many European states have stricter abortion laws than the U.S.

The resolution, passed by a vote of 324-155, also moved to symbolically enshrine abortion as a fundamental right in the EU Charter, Politico Europe reported. But the median gestational time limit for abortion on demand in Europe is twelve weeks, according to Right to Life; three weeks earlier than the 15 week limit of the Mississippi law that led to Roe being overturned and that Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia are proposing for their respective states.

“I’m wondering if this resolution was crafted by the European Parliament’s committee on irony and hypocrisy?  After all, 47 out of 50 European nations limit elective abortion prior to 15 weeks gestation. In France, elective abortion is limited at 12 weeks, while Germany limits elective abortion at 14 weeks,” Chuck Donovan, president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Most of the EU has more restrictive abortion laws than most of the US—and regardless they’re democratically decided, which Roe prevented—so this is rich. I just hope that Congress doesn’t start voting on silly EU policies. https://t.co/9juXoeBU2y

— Ilya Shapiro (@ishapiro) July 8, 2022

Both France and Germany have representatives that voted for the condemnation, vote tallies show.

“Abortion is a fundamental right for all women. It must be protected. I wish to express my solidarity with the women whose liberties are being undermined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” French President Emanuel Macron recently wrote in a tweet following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe.

But in his own country, abortion is restricted sooner than Mississippi and Macron has publicly opposed expanding access beyond current levels, The Guardian reported.

Even some Republican-controlled states in the U.S. have far more relaxed limits than the European median; Montana currently permits abortion up to viability, Kansas allows it until 22 weeks, and Nebraska’s regulations begin at 20 weeks, Politico reported.

Some U.S. states, like Missouri, have banned elective abortions outright, but so have European countries Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Lichtenstein, Politico Europe reported.

Nearly two-thirds of European countries require waiting periods before women can get an abortion, while half mandate counseling, according to a March 2021 Center for Reproductive Rights report.

“No European nation allows elective abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, as is effectively permitted in California, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New York,” Donovan told the DCNF. “The Dobbs decision gives ordinary Americans the same right Europeans take for granted, which is to arrive at a consensus on abortion via the democratic process, not the whims of an unelected judiciary.”