Commission response to the European citizens’ initiative on reducing unsafe abortion in the EU

The European Commission adopted a Communication in response to the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “My voice, my choice: for safe and accessible abortion”. This is the twelfth initiative to receive a formal response from the Commission since European Citizens’ Initiatives (ECIs) were launched in 2012.

According to the World Health Organisation, around 483,000 unsafe abortions are performed in Europe each year. With the potential to cause various forms of physical harm and severe mental stress, and thus endanger women’s lives, unsafe abortion is a public health issue. As such, the EU can support Member States’ action in this area, while respecting their responsibility for defining their health policy and for organising and delivering health services and medical care.

After careful analysis of the initiative and taking into account the limitations imposed by the Treaties on the Union’s competences in the field of public health, the Commission stresses that Member States can build on existing EU instruments to improve equal access to legally available and affordable healthcare services, including safe abortion services.

This EU support can be provided through the European Social Fund Plus (ESF) programme, if Member States so wish, on a voluntary basis and in accordance with their national legislation, in particular by using or reallocating resources available under their ESF programmes. This Fund could be used to improve access for pregnant women to legally available, affordable and safe abortion services. It can also support the efforts of these Member States, while granting them autonomy to determine how and under what conditions access to safe and legal abortion will be facilitated.

Given that Member States that so wish can already provide EU support, within the framework of existing instruments and relatively quickly, there is no need to propose a new legal instrument.

Next steps

In today’s response, the Commission highlights that Member States have the possibility to use their ESF funding to support women’s access to abortion services. Member States that choose to use the ESF may first need to amend their national or regional programmes covered by the ESF to include this type of action among their priorities.

Background

The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) was introduced by the Lisbon Treaty as a tool for citizens to influence the EU agenda. It was officially launched in April 2012. Once registered, an ECI allows one million citizens from at least seven EU Member States to ask the Commission to propose legal acts within its areas of competence. Once an initiative has been submitted, the Commission has six months to give a formal response. Since its introduction, the Commission has registered 127 initiatives, of which 14 have collected one million signatures and have been submitted to the Commission for consideration.

With more than 1.1 million signatures collected across the EU, the ‘My Voice, My Choice’ initiative was submitted to the Commission for consideration on 1 September 2025. This initiative calls on the Commission to provide financial support to Member States where, in accordance with their national legislation, any woman who does not yet have access to safe and legal abortion in Europe can safely terminate her pregnancy.

More information: European Commission.