Attempt to Legalize Abortion at the EU Level Under the Guise of Caring for Crime Victims

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• Amendments to the directive on the rights of victims of crime are currently under consideration in the European Parliament.

• Parliamentary committees have proposed amendments that would require European Union member states to provide victims of crime with access to abortion and so-called emergency contraception.

• If adopted, these amendments could force member states that protect life from conception to legalize abortion.

• The proposed amendments are incompatible with the EU Treaties, as they exceed the EU’s competences.

• To enter into force, the amendments must still be approved by the European Parliament in plenary session as well as by the EU Council.

The European Union is currently working on a draft amendment to the directive on the rights of victims of crime, initially presented by the European Commission in 2023 (COM(2023)0424). The original draft focuses on improving existing procedures and encouraging member states to better safeguard the rights of victims, for instance by ensuring access to appropriate psychological support.

In 2023, however, the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) jointly adopted a report proposing amendments that significantly expand the scope of the directive.

Two proposed amendments in particular have raised significant concerns. The first (Amendment No. 8 to Recital 7) seeks to introduce a reference to the need to ensure:

“access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, including emergency contraception (…) and access to abortion care”
(cf. European Parliament Amendments, COM(2023)0424, Amendment 8)

The second (Amendment No. 66 to Article 9(3)(b)) would oblige member states to provide:

“access to comprehensive medical care services, including sexual and reproductive healthcare services, in particular access to safe and legal abortion care”
(cf. European Parliament Amendments, COM(2023)0424, Amendment 66)

If adopted, these provisions would effectively compel member states with constitutional or legislative protections for unborn human life to legalize access to abortion, in clear conflict with their national sovereignty.

Both Amendment No. 8 and Amendment No. 66 appear to contravene fundamental principles of EU law, especially the principle of conferral enshrined in Article 5(2) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). This principle stipulates that:

“Under the principle of conferral, the Union shall act only within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties to attain the objectives set out therein.”

There is no provision in the Treaty on European Union or the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) that grants EU institutions the authority to legislate on abortion. As such, the matter remains under the exclusive competence of the member states, whose democratically elected legislatures retain full discretion to determine whether, and to what extent, abortion is permitted within their jurisdictions.

The proposed amendments are not yet in force. To be adopted, they must be approved in a plenary session of the European Parliament and then receive endorsement from the Council of the European Union. Trilateral negotiations are currently underway between representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council, under the presidency of the Polish government.

Although the exact timeline remains uncertain, unofficial sources indicate that the Polish government is working to finalize the directive’s revised text by the end of June. If that deadline is met, a plenary vote in the European Parliament on the final version could occur as early as July. However, a vote in September now seems more probable, according to Patryk Ignaszczak, an analyst at the Ordo Iuris international law department.