BRUSSELS, June 24, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A March 25 report “on the situation of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the EU [European Union], in the frame of women’s health” has received the approval of the European Parliament, thereby adopting the report’s framing of abortion as an “essential health service” and a “human right” in a vote Thursday.
The “reproductive health” document, known as the Matić report from the name of its sponsor in the European Parliament, Croatian MEP Predrag Fred Matić, also qualifies a doctor’s objection to abortion “based on personal beliefs” about the unborn as “the denial of medical care.”
During a plenary session of the European Parliament, the legislative body of the EU, lawmakers voted in favor of the pro-abortion report, 378-255, with 42 abstentions. A press statement released by the Parliament after the vote declared that “sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) [are] a fundamental pillar of women’s rights and gender equality that cannot in any way be watered down or withdrawn.” Accordingly, the Parliament urged EU member states “to ensure women are offered high quality, comprehensive and accessible SRHR, and to remove all barriers impeding them from using these services.”
The Parliament stressed that these services include “[a]ccess to abortion, contraception and sexuality education,” informing those EU countries with “highly restrictive laws prohibiting abortion [like Poland]” that they now violate a woman’s “human rights.” The report now requires “all member states to ensure universal access” to what the EU calls “safe and legal abortion, and guarantee that abortion on request is legal in early pregnancy, and beyond if the pregnant person’s health is in danger.”
Not satisfied with expanding the definition of abortion to become a human right, the report also diminishes conscience rights, framing objections to abortion as the denial of “care” and “a form of gender-based violence.” “MEPs regret that some member states allow medical practitioners, and even entire medical institutions, refuse the provision of health services because of a so-called conscience clause,” the Parliament’s statement reads. “This leads to the denial of abortion care on the grounds of religion or conscience and puts women’s lives in danger.”
MEPs also emphasized an apparent need to provide sexual education to “primary and secondary school children,” claiming that such instruction “can significantly contribute to reducing sexual violence and harassment.”
Matić commented on the success of the vote, saying that it “marks a new era in the European Union and the first real resistance to a regressive agenda that has trampled on women’s rights in Europe for years.”
Before the Matić report was approved, two alternative proposals were put to the chamber in a last ditch attempt to block the report, German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost reported. The Christian Democratic EPP parliamentary group and the euroskeptic ECR group both had their attempts thwarted earlier in the day, with the respective proposals voted out by 373-288 and 402-267.
The parents of Alta Fixsler are pleading with the British courts not to remove life support from their brain-damaged daughter, so that they can transport her to a hospital in Israel or the U.S.
Could you do your part and SIGN and SHARE this petition which asks the British courts and hospital system to allow the Fixslers to remove their daughter from the UK so that she can live, and not be killed by so-called "passive euthanasia" where her life support is taken away?
Late last month, High Court Justice Mr. Alistair McDonald insanely ruled that it is in Alta's "best interests" to have her life support stopped, and that Manchester University NHS could begin the process of removing her life support.
But, Mr. and Mrs. Fixsler, who are are Orthodox Jews living according to Hebrew law, strenuously objected to the hospital depriving Alta of life support and she was given a reprieve, but we don't know how long that will last.
In fact, just yesterday, a British Court of Appeal declined to render judgement in this case, giving more hope that little Alta might be able to leave the UK and be treated in another country.
And, both American and Israeli lawmakers have spoken up against the planned passive euthanasia death of Alta, with a host of U.S. Senators, as well as the Israeli Health Minister and President, petitioning different British officials to stop the process of causing Alta's death.
We concur with what the Senators wrote: "It is unacceptable that people in government think they, not parents, should decide what is in the best interest of a child, even in a matter of life and death."
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition now.
The story of a brain-damaged child in England in danger of a passive euthanasia opposed by both his or her parents and officials overseas is now a distressingly familiar one.
In the 2017 case of Charlie Gard, Pope Francis, President Donald Trump, and 37 European MPs sided with the infant’s parents against the British courts that agreed to allow the NHS to withdraw his life support. Almost one-year-old Charlie died 12 minutes after he was removed from a ventilator.
In 2018, Tom Evans, the Catholic father of Alfie Evans, appealed to Pope Francis on behalf of his almost two-year-old son, and the pontiff did indeed ask for prayers for the youngster. Both Polish and Italian hospitals were willing to treat the brain-injured boy, but the British courts refused to release him. Alfie died four days after he was removed from a ventilator.
In 2019, Tafida Raqeeb, then five years old, made headlines when her Muslim parents fought the Barts Health NHS Trust’s request to stop treating the brain-damaged girl. Once again, an Italian hospital offered to treat the sick child, and in this case the judge – Mr Justice Alistair MacDonald – ruled that the child could be allowed to live and taken to Italy for treatment.
And, in 2021, six-year-old Pippa Knight was not permitted to live despite the wishes of her widowed mother Paula. Pippa died in May after doctors removed her life support.
RIGHT NOW, please help little Alta and her parents fight for her right to live, and not be killed by having her life support removed.
Thank you for SIGNING and SHARING this urgent petition.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'No judgment yet: Panel to ‘think carefully’ about taking 2-year-old Alta Fixsler off life support' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/no-judgment-yet-panel-to-think-carefully-about-taking-2-year-old-alta-fixsler-off-life-support
'US senators, Israeli officials appeal against UK High Court decision to deny Jewish toddler food, water, oxygen' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/us-senators-israeli-officials-appeal-against-uk-high-court-decision-to-deny-jewish-toddler-food-water-oxygen
'Judge rules Jewish girl's life support can be withdrawn' - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-57276221
Photo Credit: screenshot / 'PA'
The bishops of the EU criticized the Matić report for its “one-sided perspective,” neglecting any concern for the rights of the unborn human being whose life is at stake. In a paper written in response to the pro-abortion proposal, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) contradicts the notion of a “human right to abortion.” “A medical intervention of such magnitude cannot and must not become a normal practice” and is “ethically untenable.”
“There is no international human rights, or other international treaty, that provides for such a general ‘human right to abortion’ or a corresponding obligation of States,” they stated. In fact, the bishops asserted that the report “disregards the responsibility of the Member States to define their health policy and the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care,” thus usurping the sovereign rights of those states.
Despite the many objections, “[a] majority of MEPs have made their position clear to member states and called on them to ensure access to safe and legal abortion and a range of other sexual and reproductive health services,” commented Matić.