MAIN POINTS

1

The resolution “Promoting Universal Health Coverage” (2627 (2025)), prepared on the basis of a report of the same title by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), was adopted on October 2, 2025, during the fall session, with the vast majority of parliamentarians absent.

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The document emphasizes the need to establish universal health coverage (UHC) systems, encompassing primary care, financing, and social solidarity.

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However, the report included a controversial provision stating that UHC must “fully encompass sexual, reproductive, and mental health,” which is often interpreted as including full access to abortion.

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Amendments were proposed that highlight the need to address the risks associated with pornography and its impact on the mental health of children and adolescents, but they were eventually rejected.

On October 2, 2025, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted Resolution No. 2627 (2025), on the basis of the report “Promoting Universal Health Coverage” (Doc. 16243), which was prepared by prepared by an Austrian MP from the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), Stefan Schennach, within the framework of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and presented on March 21, 2023, in the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development. It is part of broader efforts by international organizations to ensure universal access to healthcare. The document states that UHC (Universal Health Coverage) should provide every citizen with essential health care services without excessive costs and, at the same time, protect those particularly vulnerable to exclusion.

The greatest controversy surrounds point 4 of the report, which reads: “(…) In that resolution, [the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] recalls that primary healthcare is the cornerstone of UHC, providing prevention, health promotion, treatment and financial protection, and requires sustainable financing. In this context, since preventing and combating gender-based discrimination are essential, UHC must fully encompass sexual, reproductive, and mental health, as well as comprehensive care for victims of violence.” Doc. 16243, Part A: Draft resolution, point 4).

The inclusion of so-called sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) in the catalog of services that “must covered by essential services” under universal health coverage (UHC) raises concerns, because the term is often interpreted broadly. In the international debate, SRHR are often equated by certain influential groups with the so-called right to abortion, access to contraception, and early sex education.

Against this background, it is worth noting the initiatives of some members of the PACE who, on October 2, 2025, submitted amendments. Irish parliamentarian Rónán Mullen (EPP/CD), together with a group of co-signatories from Hungary, Italy, the United Kingdom, Romania, Turkey, and Luxembourg, proposed supplementing the draft resolution with a reference to the risks posed by early exposure of children and young people to pornography. Amendment No. 2 explicitly proposed to “address, within the framework of UHC, the problem of early exposure to pornography, its impact on children’s mental health and psychosexual development, and the risk of compulsive and aggressive sexual behaviour in children and adolescents.”

In a subsequent amendment, No. 3, the signatories (including Mullen, Bartos, Bonetti, Leigh, Sighiartău, and Tan) proposed a change to the controversial point 4 of the report. The passage about the need to “fully encompass sexual, reproductive, and mental health” was to be replaced with new content: “address emerging risks, including pornography consumption and its mental health impacts, and encompass comprehensive care for victims of violence in the context of sexual, reproductive and mental health services.”

Amendments introduced by some lawmakers highlight the potential risks of expanding the definition of UHC to include ideological issues. These amendments were intended to make the report more balanced, with greater emphasis on real health issues, such as addictions and harms resulting from pornography. However, they were not included in the adopted text of the resolution, whose point 4 states: “(…) primary healthcare is the cornerstone of UHC, providing prevention, health promotion, treatment and financial protection, and requires sustainable financing.. In this context, since preventing and combating gender-based discrimination are essential, UHC must fully encompass sexual, reproductive, and mental health, as well as comprehensive care for victims of violence.” (Resolution No. 2627 (2025), point 4). 

The final version of the resolution adopted by 46 votes by PACE therefore retained references to “sexual and reproductive health”. 3 people abstained, and 6 were against, including one parliamentarian from Poland—Jan Filip Libicki (of the European People’s Party). And that means that only 55 out of 306 members of this Assembly took part in this particular vote. Those parliamentarians participating in the vote also called on states to make use of the Council of Europe’s instruments, including the European Social Charter and the Oviedo Convention, when shaping national health policy. 


“The adoption of the PACE report shows that a struggle is underway in Europe over whether the right to health care will be understood in a spirit of solidarity and assistance to the vulnerable, or whether it will be used to promote ideological agendas. The goal itself—universal access to health care—is legitimate and consistent with states’ international obligations, but the provision on “sexual and reproductive health” may be instrumentalized for purposes contrary to the right to life and the protection of the family. “The initiatives of members of parliament who drew attention to real threats to children, such as pornography, deserve a positive assessment, showing that a debate about health can be conducted in a substantive way and oriented toward the good of the person,” commented Julia Książek of the Ordo Iuris Institute’s Center for International Law.

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Source of cover photo: iStock

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