Ahead of the vote in the European Parliament on the European Citizens’ Initiative “My Voice, My Choice”, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) today, Tuesday 16 December 2025, published a statement expressing serious concerns regarding the overall objective of this initiative. COMECE:“In the debate on abortion, what is needed is not further ideological division, but rather prudent policies that genuinely protect and support women, while also safeguarding unborn human life. We call on Members of the European Parliament to exercise responsibility when voting”.

The aim of the “My Voice, My Choice – For Safe and Accessible Abortion” initiative [ECI (2024) 000004] is to create an EU funding mechanism for abortion-related services in the context of ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’, in order to ensure access to abortion regardless of national legal frameworks.

However, COMECE highlights that while the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) calls on the Union to enhance access to quality healthcare with a view to achieving universal health coverage, it also clearly states that “the Union’s action shall respect the responsibilities of the Member States for the definition of their health policy and for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care” (Article 168(7) TFEU).

According to COMECE, this provision is particularly relevant in highly sensitive areas such as the regulation of abortion, where Member States have adopted different legal frameworks reflecting ethical, cultural and societal choices.

“A financial support mechanism must not have the aim or effect of undermining the public order legislation of Member States, nor, more generally, the healthcare and ethical decisions taken by Member States in the exercise of their competences in health matters”, reads the statement.

COMECE also expresses deep concern about the possible effects that repeated attempts to bypass national competences and the principle of subsidiarity for ideological reasons may have on European societies and on the European project as a whole, particularly in today’s critical and highly polarised context.

“In the debate on abortion – COMECE states – what is needed is not further ideological division, but rather prudent policies that genuinely protect and support women, while also safeguarding unborn human life.”

The Secretariat of EU bishops further underlines that the collective term ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’ cannot include abortion as an essential health service to be made universally available. “A medical intervention of such gravity and with such important ethical implications cannot and must not be normalised”, stresses COMECE, noting that other legal frameworks based on ethical policy decisions taken by Member States are both possible and legitimate.

Finally, COMECE highlights that EU health programmes addressing cross-border situations already exist and respect the EU order of competences, such as the “EU 4 Health Programme 2021-2027”.

In light of this, COMECE strongly encourages Members of the European Parliament to exercise responsibility when voting, taking into account the implications of this initiative in the current European context, as well as the need to respect the existing EU framework of competences in the field of abortion and existing EU health programmes.

Earlier this December, COMECE also released a statement expressing the concerns of the Catholic Church regarding a recent judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case Wojewoda Mazowiecki (C-713/23). According to the EU bishops, the ruling appears to push jurisprudence beyond the Union’s competences and undermines one of the European Union’s fundamental principles, subsidiarity.