International coalition to protect unborn life. The Ordo Iuris Institute is among the signatories of the appeal to the President of France

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· The Ordo Iuris Institute joined the signatories of the letter of the international coalition of civil organizations opposing the intention of including abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

· The coalition is composed of over 100 organizations from 15 European countries.

· The letter to French President Emmanuel Macron is related to his statement that abortion should be recognized as a fundamental right.

READ THE LETTER

On January 19 Emmanuel Macron spoke at the European Parliament while opening the French presidency of the Council of the European Union. French President claimed that abortion should be recognized as a right in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which would be a violation of the right to life. Importantly, the second article of the said Charter explicitly states that “everyone has the right to life”.

This is in line with the practice of pro-abortion pursuits on the EU forum. In June 2021, the European Parliament adopted a report that defined abortion as an essential healthcare service and criticized the doctors’ exercise of their right to refuse to perform it on the basis of conscientious objection.

Although legalizing abortion at the level of EU treaties would require the consent of all member states, there is a growing pressure to expand access to abortion in member states by means of other legal instruments. The coalition has made its appeal now to show that there is broad social opposition to such desires, and that pro-life advocates have a wide-ranging representation. The letter was signed by 105 organizations, incl. those from Spain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.

The signatories of the letter recall international declarations guaranteeing the right to life. “How can we go against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, declared by the General Assembly of the United Nations, which ensures the recognition as well as the universal application of the right to life and ‘the inherent dignity to all human beings’, without distinction whether they are born or in gestation?” - it was stated.

The call also mentions the Rome Convention of 1950, "which guarantees the right of every person to life and the fact that death cannot be inflicted to anyone intentionally". It also cited the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which voiced in the preamble that the child needs “appropriate legal protection, before and after birth”.

"Cooperation in the fight against abortion must not be limited only to a national debate, but we should also strive for a strong international alliance that can shape the debate in a broader forum, which as the experience of recent years shows, is also gaining importance in the context of the development of the home affairs of the Member States. Of course, the community opposing us has enormous resources, but this must not discourage us from being active and fighting honestly to restore order based on natural law. Even our modest actions can bring positive effects in the long term,” said Michał Pełka, Analyst of the Ordo Iuris Institute International Law Center.