Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Across the EU? The “My Voice, My Choice” Project and Brussels’ Ideological Offensive

Last Wednesday, the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) adopted a draft resolution ((2025/2889(RSP)) responding to the “My voice, my choice” initiative. In the draft, MEPs called on the Commission to provide full support for the initiative and to support Member States’ actions promoting access to sexual and

reproductive healthcare. The document explicitly names Poland and Malta as examples of countries where “violations concerning access to reproductive health care” require European intervention. Initiative “My Voice, My Choice” is presented in the public sphere as an expression of a “social demand” to ensure equal access to abortion throughout the European Union.

Formally, the initiative is a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) – a democratic instrument introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon, enabling citizens to submit legislative proposals to the European Commission. The originators and main organizers of the initiative are entities operating in the field of professional lobbying and political communication.

The central figure of the campaign is Nika Kovač a Slovenian activist and director of the 8th of March Institute, It is an organization that in 2021–2023 allegedly received a total of €355,000 from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. This Institute also works with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), one of the world’s largest networks of abortion clinics, which over the years has received €3.2 million from the European Union budget, and since 2005 more than $46 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Another participant in this network is the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF) – a lobbying group operating at the European Parliament that brings together Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who promote the expansion of so-called reproductive and sexual rights. In 2023, EPF allegedly received approximately €980,000 from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

In accordance with the ECI rules, after the initiative is registered, the European Commission is required to assess whether it falls within the limits of the Union’s competences. In the case of “My Voice, My Choice” Brussels concluded that it could pertain, among other things, to the funding of health policy priorities through EU funds, even though the issue of abortion is not within the EU’s competence.

At a practical level, the “opt-in” mechanism means that participation in the fund (that is, the disbursement of funds or participation in financing abortion “services”) would be voluntary for Member States; in other words, Poland would not have an automatic obligation to pay or to send patients. From a legal standpoint, this initiative therefore obliges the Commission to consider establishing a financial mechanism that would ensure women from countries where abortion is restricted have access to “safe medical services” in other EU countries. In practice, this would mean that abortion procedures performed in other countries would be funded with taxpayers’ money.

MEP Jorge Buxadé from the Spanish VOX party said: “We are not dealing here with a debate about health, but with another step of globalism that blurs the legal and moral boundaries of states in favor of a single ideology. That’s not healthy. It’s death, money, and power”

The next step in the procedure will be a plenary debate in the European Parliament scheduled for December 2, 2025, after which a plenary vote on the resolution may take place. Once it is adopted, the European Commission will be required to formally address the content of the initiative.

“The proposals contained in the “My voice, my choice” initiative would lead to a de facto harmonization of abortion practice and to the potential imposition of a uniform “standard” on all member states of the EU, notwithstanding their constitutional principles on the protection of life. Incorporating abortion funding into EU mechanisms would constitute an extra-treaty extension of the Union’s competences and a violation of the principle of subsidiarity, according to which decisions should be taken at the lowest possible level, as close to citizens as possible. It should be emphasized that the EU does not have a legal basis for creating funds for purposes that are directly contrary to the national law of some Member States. Financing abortion from EU funds would constitute interference in national constitutional orders, including the Polish Constitution, which in Article 38 guarantees legal protection of the life of every human being,” notes Julia Książek of the Ordo Iuris Center for International Law.

See also:

• Initiative “My Voice, My Choice” – pressure on the European Commission to fund abortion (in Polish)