The recently-elected president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has a fairly solid pro-life voting record in her native Malta, one of the few remaining nations in which abortion is illegal in all circumstances. However, one of her first actions after ascending to the presidency was to functionally disavow that record by committing to sign the Simone Veil Pact, which includes the guarantee of so-called “sexual and reproductive health rights”— a euphemism for the legal availability of contraception and abortion.
The Simone Veil Pact was introduced by France, which legalized abortion up to 12 weeks in 1975 under the similarly named Veil Law. The namesake of both measures, Simone Veil, was an abortion proponent, the health minister of France, and the first female president of the European Parliament.
Metsola was elected to her current position on January 11; on January 19, she stated that she would sign the Simone Veil Pact. “This parliament has always been clear and unambiguous on the issue of sexual and reproductive health rights. … They will be my positions and I will promote them,” she said.
It is not the first time Metsola has behaved schizophrenically on the issue of abortion – last year, she supported an EU resolution condemning a Polish law that established a near-total abortion ban. “I promoted [the resolution] and I presented it,” she said. “That is exactly what I will do with all the positions … taken in all this area in all the member states. My position is that of the European Parliament. And … on all sexual and reproductive health rights, it has been unambiguous, it has repeatedly called for these rights to be better protected.”
Read more at Live Action.
I’ve always wondered why these national and world leaders believe abortion is the business of government. Seems to me it’s a private matter between obstetrician and patient. A secondary issue, the incendiary part, arises when governments require taxpayers to fund abortions regardless of their moral or religious objections.