The overturning Roe v. WadeAfter a major equality conference in Spain last week, activists and academics warned that the U.S. will support fringe anti-abortion movements across Europe.
One told openDemocracy: “Now they will be able to crawl out of marginality and point to a major democracy having moved in their direction.”
Neil Datta was the secretary of European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. openDemocracy after the Seville conference ‘De-Democratisation, Gender+ and the Politics of Exclusion in Europe’.
Imke Schmincke, assistant professor of gender studies at the Institute of Sociology at the German university LMU Munich, echoed his words.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision “will give European conservative forces a major boost,” Schmincke said.
“It will intensify the polarisation around sexual and reproductive rights and gender equality,” she said, adding that groups from the extreme and religious Right were “fuelling culture wars also in Europe”.
Experts in Europe fear that the U.S. Christian Right may see the overturning Roe v. Wade as a “validation of engaging in lawfare” and will increase it in the near future.
U.S. religious extremists are long involved in lawfare in Europe. openDemocracy’s investigations have shown Their top funding targets include European courts.
The European offices of the American Center for Law and Justice and Alliance Defending Freedom have intervened in dozens European court cases that were against sexual and reproductive rights. When Poland’s constitutional court voted to ban abortion in cases of foetal defects in October 2020, ACLJ submitted arguments The restrictions were supported. ADF also intervened in Italy’s case against same-sex marriage.
Laws do not always guarantee safe abortion access
Despite widespread condemnation of U.S. Supreme Court’s decision from many European leaders UN expertsAbortion is still legal taboo In many European countries.
The latest European Abortion Policies AtlasNearly a third of European countries have people have problems Access to abortion care is available. Some women are even forced into continuing their pregnancies against the will of their partner.
The Atlas, Europe’s first detailed analysis of abortion policy, scored 52 countries or territories based upon their legal frameworks regarding access to safe abortion. It marked 38 of them between ‘medium’ and ‘exceptionally poor’.
Although some states were making advances on reproductive freedom — such as San Marino, which in September 2021 voted to legalise abortion care in a groundbreaking referendum after a 20-year fight — other countries are constantly backsliding, such as Poland There is a near total ban on abortion in this country.
The other extreme example is in Europe: MaltaWhere is it? abortion is illegal in all circumstances.
Experts say that liberal abortion laws in other European nations do not guarantee safe abortion access.
Veronique Sehier, former co-president of Planning Familial in France, told openDemocracy: “If access to services is not effective, if information is not developed, the most remote women do not have access to abortion — they can’t exercise their rights.
“If, on top of this, they come across health professionals who oppose their conscience clause, it becomes a real struggle for them.”
Opposition to abortion isn’t anything new in Europe. Recent research released by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights shows that, since 2009, more than $700m has been spent in Europe on ‘anti-gender’ activities against sexual and reproductive rights — with more than half (about $430m) coming from European sources, overshadowing $180m from Russia and $80m from the U.S..
openDemocracy’s last investigation showed that, since 2007, 30 U.S. Christian right groups have spent at least $297m of ‘dark money’ outside the U.S., with more than $68m spent between 2016 and 2019. The largest portion of this money was expended in Europe.
Between 2007 and 2019, U.S. Christian Right organizations allocated more than $98m for the continent. This money was used to fund campaigns against women and LGBTIQ rights and sex education and abortion.
One of the biggest international spenders in the region ($23m) is the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), led by the famous U.S. evangelical preacher’s son, Franklin Graham. This non-profit organisation was once a non-profit. Since then, they have not had to disclose their foreign spending.
One of Europe’s most active groups is the American Center for Law and Justice. It spent an average of $1.2m per year in Europe between 2007 and 2019.
Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) spent $4,3m in Europe in 2019, almost double the amount in 2018. The group also made its first ever spending in Eurasia in 2019.
The Federalist Society ($2.4m), which is a secular and conservative legal organization that has a high influence in U.S. judiciary policy, revealed that Europe was the primary destination of foreign spending.
What’s Next
“The overturning of Roe v. Wade showed that it’s high time to think smartly about our mid- and long-term strategies, and not just fixing problems on a daily basis,” said Ruth Rubio-Marín, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sevilla and director of the UNIA UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Interculturalism.
Veronique Sehier from France’s Planning Familial said that — while Poland and Hungary may be next on the list — anti-gender movements are eyeing other European countries, tooUsing common strategies and methods.
“Vigilance is needed, as well as coordinated action by pro-choice movements and work with politicians to strengthen democracy and emancipatory laws.”
But it wasn’t all bad news. Datta called the U.S. Supreme Court decision a “wake-up call pointing to how fragile European existing progressive abortion laws and related contested human rights are” and how they clearly needed “further legal protection”.
Professor Schmincke also sees this as a positive outcome. “The idea of bodily autonomy as a universal right for everyone will get anchored on more solid grounds,” she predicted.
