Europe to vote on scheme to help abortion access

PARIS, Dec ‌17 (Reuters) - The EU's parliament will vote on Wednesday on a scheme that would enable ‍women from ‌nations restricting abortion to terminate pregnancies in another member state free of charge.

The "My Voice, My ⁠Choice" citizens' initiative proposes a fund from ‌the EU budget to cover procedures for people from nations with near-total bans such as Malta and Poland or places where abortion is hard to access like Italy and Croatia.

While the trend in Europe has been ⁠towards more accessibility for abortions, with the UK decriminalising it and France making it a constitutional freedom, there has been ​a surge in support for far-right parties, many of which ‌oppose abortion. 

Proponents of the initiative, including abortion ⁠rights campaigners and some members of European Parliament (MEPs) from the left to centre-right, say it should reduce unsafe practices and help women lacking funds for a procedure abroad.

"It would place ​us on equal grounds as other European citizens," said Isabel Stabile, a doctor who campaigned for signatures in Malta.

Critics, including far-right and some centre-right MEPs, say the proposal interferes in national laws and traditional Christian values.

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The vote is due soon after midday (1300 GMT) at the European Parliament ​in ‍Strasbourg and analysts expect it to ​pass. 

The European Commission will then have until March to decide whether to adopt the proposal, though other citizens' initiatives have not been successful until now.

In the lead-up, opponents held events with anti-abortion rights federation One of Us and the European Centre for Law and Justice, an offshoot of the American Center for Law and Justice, which litigates on abortion cases, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s ⁠2022 overturning of the landmark Roe v Wade case.

The groups organised two conferences at the European Parliament criticising the proposal and pushing for ​the European Commission to offer more support for maternity and not abortion.

“Sending women to countries that are more liberal is an attack on national order,” said Elisabeth Dieringer of the far-right Patriots for Europe group, in a parliamentary debate on the eve ‌of the vote. “This ideological abuse of power is something that we're not going to accept at EU level.”

(Reporting by Layli Foroudi in Paris and Paul Carsten in Berlin; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)