The European Parliament on Wednesday adopted a text urging Brussels to facilitate access to "safe" abortions for all women on the continent.
Access to voluntary terminations of pregnancy differs markedly from one European country to another: it is protected by the Constitution in France, but very restricted in other states.
This is particularly the case in Malta, where some women "are in total disarray," Green MEP Mélissa Camara told AFP.
In Poland, a country of 38 million inhabitants with one of the strictest laws on the matter, only 896 abortions were performed in 2024, according to official figures.
The text adopted on Wednesday echoes a petition that has gathered more than one million signatures from European citizens, spread across several member states.
He calls on the Commission to "put in place a mechanism" that would allow "any person residing in the Union who still does not have access to a safe and legal abortion" to travel at a lower cost to another of the 27 member countries that do allow such care.
The mechanism would be financed by Brussels and member states on a voluntary basis.
This initiative was mainly supported by MEPs from left-wing and centre groups.
The far right and some right-wing MPs rejected the text, arguing that it was not up to Brussels to act on these issues.
"The EU should not intervene in matters concerning the competence of member states," MEP François-Xavier Bellamy told AFP.
The European Commission has pledged to examine this petition, put forward by the "My Voice, My Choice" group, before March 2026.
However, nothing obliges him to transform this initiative into a European legal act.
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