In a press release on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, the presidency of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) expressed their “profound concern over President Macron’s proposal to include an alleged right to abortion in the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
Aware of the tragedy and complexity of the situations in which mothers find themselves who plan to abort, the Bishops of the European Union (EU) pointed out the need to give the necessary help and assistance to women in difficulties and to their unborn child.
“The attention to women who find themselves in a difficult or conflictive situation due to their pregnancy, is a central part of the diaconal ministry of the Church and it must also be a duty carried out by our societies,” affirms the EU Bishops’ statement.
From the legal point of view, the members of COMECE’s presidency stressed that “there is no recognized right of abortion in European or international legislation. “ “To attempt to change this not only goes against fundamental European beliefs and values, but would be an unjust law, lacking an ethical foundation and destined to be the cause of perpetual conflicts among EU citizens.”
President Macron’s proposal to insert this alleged right in no way can be considered a “breath of fresh air to our fundamental rights,” continued the Bishops of the European Union.
Recalling the EU’s Founding Fathers, COMECE stressed that European integration must always “foster and promote respect of the different identities and avoid ideological impositions.”
The statement of COMECE’s presidency comes after President Emmanuel Macron’s address to the European Parliament on January 19, 2022, in the framework of the French presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
