{"id":739019,"date":"2022-07-10T15:25:57","date_gmt":"2022-07-10T15:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=0030b343162adb15daab81626765d128"},"modified":"2022-07-10T15:25:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-10T15:25:57","slug":"experts-fear-that-backsliding-on-abortion-rights-will-go-beyond-us-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/07\/10\/experts-fear-that-backsliding-on-abortion-rights-will-go-beyond-us-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts Fear That Backsliding on Abortion Rights Will Go Beyond US Borders"},"content":{"rendered":"

The overturning of Roe v. Wade<\/em> in the U.S. will embolden fringe anti-abortion groups across Europe, activists and academics warned last week following a major equalities conference in Spain.<\/p>\n

One told openDemocracy<\/em>: \u201cNow they will be able to crawl out of marginality and point to a major democracy having moved in their direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil Datta, secretary of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, was speaking to openDemocracy<\/em> after the Seville conference \u2018De-Democratisation, Gender+ and the Politics of Exclusion in Europe\u2019.<\/p>\n

His words were echoed by Imke Schmincke, assistant professor in gender studies at the Institute of Sociology in the German university LMU Munich.<\/p>\n

The <\/span>U.S. Supreme Court’s decision<\/a> <\/span>\u201cwill give European conservative forces a major boost,\u201d Schmincke said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will intensify the polarisation around sexual and reproductive rights and gender equality,\u201d she said, adding that groups from the extreme and religious Right were \u201cfuelling culture wars also in Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

European experts fear the U.S. Christian Right will see the overturning of Roe v. Wade<\/em> as a \u201cvalidation of engaging in lawfare\u201d and will increase it in the near future.<\/p>\n

U.S. religious extremists have long been engaged in lawfare in Europe. openDemocracy<\/em>\u2019s investigations have <\/span>shown<\/a> <\/span>that their key targets for funding include European courts.<\/p>\n

The European offices of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) have intervened in dozens of European court cases against sexual and reproductive rights. When Poland\u2019s constitutional court voted to ban abortion in cases of foetal defects in October 2020, ACLJ <\/span>submitted arguments<\/a> <\/span>in favour of the restrictions. ADF also intervened in Italy\u2019s case against same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

Laws Do Not Always Guarantee Access to Safe Abortion<\/h2>\n

Despite widespread condemnation of the U.S. Supreme Court decision from <\/span>many European leaders<\/a> <\/span>and <\/span>UN experts<\/a>, abortion is still a <\/span>taboo<\/a> <\/span>in many European countries.<\/p>\n

According to the latest <\/span>European Abortion Policies Atlas<\/a>, people in almost a third of European countries <\/span>have problems<\/a> <\/span>accessing abortion care and some are even forced to continue pregnancies against their will.<\/p>\n

The Atlas, the first in-depth analysis of abortion policies across Europe, scored 52 countries and territories according to their legal frameworks on access to safe abortion care. It marked 38 of them between \u2018medium\u2019 and \u2018exceptionally poor\u2019.<\/p>\n

Although some states were making advances on reproductive freedom — such as San Marino, which in September 2021 <\/span>voted<\/a> <\/span>to legalise abortion care in a groundbreaking referendum after a 20-year fight — other countries are constantly backsliding, such as <\/span>Poland<\/a> <\/span>which has a near total abortion ban now.<\/p>\n

The other extreme example in Europe is <\/span>Malta<\/a>, where <\/span>abortion is illegal in all circumstances<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But experts say liberal abortion laws in other European countries do not guarantee access to safe abortion, either.<\/p>\n

Veronique Sehier, former co-president of Planning Familial in France, told openDemocracy: \u201cIf access to services is not effective, if information is not developed, the most remote women do not have access to abortion — they can\u2019t exercise their rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf, on top of this, they come across health professionals who oppose their conscience clause, it becomes a real struggle for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposition to abortion isn\u2019t anything new in Europe. Recent <\/span>research<\/a> <\/span>released by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights shows that, since 2009, more than $700m has been spent in Europe on \u2018anti-gender\u2019 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..<\/p>\n

openDemocracy<\/em>\u2019s last <\/span>investigation<\/a> <\/span>showed that, since 2007, 30 U.S. Christian right groups have spent at least $297m of \u2018dark money\u2019 outside the U.S., with more than $68m spent between 2016 and 2019. The largest proportion of this money was spent in <\/span>Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Between 2007 and 2019, U.S. Christian Right organisations allocated more than $98m to spend in the continent, fuelling campaigns against women and LGBTIQ rights, sex education and abortion.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s son, Franklin Graham. This organisation, formerly a non-profit, reclassified itself as a church in 2014, and has not had to disclose its foreign spending since then.<\/p>\n

One of the most active groups in Europe is the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which spent on average $1.2m a year in Europe between 2007 and 2019.<\/p>\n

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) recorded its highest-ever spending in Europe in 2019 with $4,3m which nearly doubled from the previous year. The group also recorded spending in Eurasia for the first time in 2019.<\/p>\n

Europe was the main destination of foreign spending disclosed by the Federalist Society ($2.4m), a secular and conservative legal group highly influential in U.S. judiciary politics.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Next<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe overturning of Roe v. Wade<\/em> showed that it\u2019s high time to think smartly about our mid- and long-term strategies, and not just fixing problems on a daily basis,\u201d said Ruth Rubio-Mar\u00edn, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sevilla and director of the UNIA UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Interculturalism.<\/p>\n

Veronique Sehier from France\u2019s Planning Familial said that — while Poland and Hungary may be next on the list — anti-gender movements are <\/span>eyeing other European countries, too<\/a>, deploying common methods and strategies.<\/p>\n

\u201cVigilance is needed, as well as coordinated action by pro-choice movements and work with politicians to strengthen democracy and emancipatory laws.”<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t all bad news. Datta called the U.S. Supreme Court decision a \u201cwake-up call pointing to how fragile European existing progressive abortion laws and related contested human rights are\u201d and how they clearly needed \u201cfurther legal protection\u201d.<\/p>\n

Professor Schmincke also sees a positive outcome of this. \u201cThe idea of bodily autonomy as a universal right for everyone will get anchored on more solid grounds,\u201d she predicted.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Latest - Truthout<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The overturning of \u201cRoe v. Wade\u201d will embolden fringe anti-abortion groups across Europe, activists and academics warn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[913,471,1691,4,3580],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":739020,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739019\/revisions\/739020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}