The European Parliament has passed a resolution which calls for abortion rights and ‘gay marriage’ to be promoted throughout the EU.
The resolution was proposed by Italian Communist MEP, Giusto Catania. It also calls for critics of homosexuality to be silenced.
It was agreed to by 401 votes to 220 with 67 abstentions. A European Parliament resolution is not legally binding but expresses the institutional position of the parliament.
Resolutions are sometimes called ‘soft law’ because they are used in other international documents or judicial proceedings and can build pressure for creating binding laws.
The resolution is based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights, part of the Lisbon treaty, despite the fact that neither the charter nor the Lisbon treaty have been passed into law.
Although much of it deals with xenophobia, and the rights of children and refugees, it also demanded the promotion of reproductive rights – a euphemism for abortion.
It stresses “the need to raise public awareness of the right to reproductive and sexual health, and calls on the member states to ensure that women can fully enjoy these rights, to put in place appropriate sex education, information and confidential advisory services, and to facilitate access to contraception in order to prevent all unwanted pregnancies and illegal and high-risk abortions”.
Amendments seeking to protect an unborn child’s right to life were rejected.
The resolution also calls on all EU member states to recognise same-sex civil partnerships equally with heterosexual marriage and calls for critics to be silenced.
The resolution says the European Parliament “Takes the view that discriminatory comments against homosexuals by social and political leaders fuel hatred and violence, and calls on the relevant governing bodies to condemn them.”
Christian legal group, the Alliance Defense Fund, has raised serious concerns about the resolution. ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska, said it “would undermine the right to life, damage the institution of the family, and curtail freedom of expression.
“It does these things in violation of treaty law and member state autonomy. The parliament should not allow itself to be used as a vehicle to further spread a damaging social agenda outside of its scope.”
Anthony Ozimic, the political secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: “The resolution violates national laws on conscientious objection to abortion and on public funding for abortion.
“The resolution calls for the recognition of a so-called right to abortion – yet not one international treaty or human rights court has recognised any such right.”
He added: “Religious leaders and pro-life groups throughout Europe must shake off their complacency about the EU and mobilise religious believers for pro-life action.
“The message everyone must hear is that the right to life is the most important political issue, because the right to life is the indispensable foundation of all other rights.
“Failure to act will mean that countless millions of unborn children will die because of the EU’s promotion of abortion both inside and outside Europe.”