Last updated on June 17th, 2022 at 12:01 pm
This piece by the Ethical Front was originally published on the NGOs Substack page. The translation into English is reposted here with permission.
IFamNews editorial
On Thursday 9 June, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution on the forthcoming judgment of the US Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion.
The resolution titled Global threats to abortion rights: the possible overturn of abortion rights in the US by the Supreme Court was adopted with 364 votes in favor, 154 against and 37 abstentions.
This is not the first time that the European Parliament has spoken out on legal and legislative issues in the USA when it comes to abortion. Last September, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in which it strongly condemned the Texas SB8 or the Heartbeat Act. And in its latest abortion resolution, the European court has once again condemned the Texas law, and has come down on similar laws from other states, as well as states with trigger abortion laws that would take effect once Roe v. Wade is overturned.
However, this resolution goes a step further and attempts to exert direct political pressure on the US Supreme Court, going so far as to impose its own interpretation of the US Constitution and the rights deriving from it on the highest legal instance in the United States.
Namely, with the plethora of clichéd phrases which this resolution abounds in: from WHO/Guttmacher speculations on the number of deaths due to illegal abortions (the analysis of which mandates a separate article) to calls for various non-binding resolutions, comments and policies in line with the ideology of abortion as a “fundamental human right”, it is easy to overlook the fact that in several instances the European Parliament calls abortion a “constitutional right” in the United States. It also says that if the US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, it would be a “rolling back on constitutional rights.”
Thus, in several instances in this resolution, the European Parliament had the audacity to determine, instead of the US Supreme Court, what constitutes a right guaranteed by the US Constitution and what does not.
Finding it appropriate to express “solidarity with women and girls in the US” whose human rights are allegedly endangered, the European Parliament reaffirms the “important role of NGOs and reproductive rights activists”, without a single word of condemnation or a single expression of concern over the fact that the draft decision was leaked to the public, which constitutes a criminal act and directly endangers the rule of law in the United States. Equally so, the European Parliament has in no way condemned the harassment of Supreme Court justices, the recent assassination attempt on one of the US Supreme Court justices, or the persistent violence of abortion advocates in the US, which is at its peak these days.
On the contrary, without any indication of objectivity, with this resolution the European Parliament continues the series of countless attempts to intimidate and discredit the institution of the US Supreme Court. It not only stuck to its hilarious and arrogant interpretation of the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion, but also exerted political pressure on other branches of authority. It called on President Biden to ensure access to “safe and legal” abortion, and called on the government to ensure “complete decriminalization of abortion” (meaning legalization of abortion on demand until the very moment of delivery). Also, in the well-trodden manner of the so-called Matić Report, it called for the regulation of the medical conscientious objection to abortion, putting “conscientious” under quotation marks.
Even before the aforementioned pro-abortion pamphlet in the form of the Matić Report–named after the Croatian politician who drafted it, and who is known for publicly mocking the right to life from conception using an ignorant, vulgar analogy between masturbation and genocide–the European Parliament has chosen a completely different course from the one that, judging by the leaked draft decision, the US Supreme Court is consciously and argumentatively following.
Namely, contrary to undemocratic pressures of the European supranational structure on pro-life states in the US, that are being exerted by invoking the legally non-binding construct of a “fundamental human right to abortion”, the US Supreme Court could explicitly deny the existence of a constitutional basis for such a right and return the issue of abortion regulation to the American people and their democratically elected representatives.
Understandably, such an approach is utterly incomprehensible to an institution that has blackmailed all sovereign European states for years, especially the ones whose constitutions, laws and democratically elected authorities are committed to protecting the right to life from conception.
In addition, the legally impeccable analysis set out in the draft decision of the US Supreme Court in the Dobbs case threatens to expose once and for all the idea of the “fundamental human right to abortion” as absurd and unfounded. Namely, the leaked decision of the US Supreme Court reveals that such a right does not exist in the Constitution of one of the most developed democracies in the world or in any legally binding human rights agreements–and the US Supreme Court is well aware of this.
That is why we sincerely hope that the forthcoming official decision of the US Supreme Court will bravely and boldly remain in essential harmony with the leaked draft and thus create an opportunity for global progress in the field of freedom, democracy and human rights, including the fetal right to life.