Anti-abortion exhibition at the European Parliament. Moretti (S&D): “An offence to women’s rights”

Brussels – One should never take one’s rights for granted. Why? Because all the historical and social achievements secured through struggles, protests, and reforms to safeguard fundamental freedoms can easily be challenged and, in some cases, become a political rallying cry. This is particularly true of women’s rights. 

From Monday (14 September) to Thursday (17 September), at the European Parliament’s headquarters in Strasbourg, the MEP for the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), Paolo Inselvini, elected as a member of Fratelli d’Italia, is organising an informative exhibition against abortion entitled “Just EUman – How a European citizen is born”. The exhibition has been organised by Pro Vita & Famiglia, an Italian Catholic and conservative association that promotes “the defence of life from conception to natural death and the traditional family.” In a press release, the MEP explained that the installation “consists of fourteen panels and a screening of the video ‘Baby Oliver’, with the aim of illustrating human development from fertilisation to birth.” The exhibition opened today (15 September), and the MEP (ECR) and head of delegation of Fratelli d’Italia at the European Parliament, Carlo Fidanza, co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), Nicola Procaccini, MEPs (ECR), Mariateresa Vivaldini, Sergio Berlato, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, Marion Maréchal (who is also Marine Le Pen’s niece), and the MEP for the Patriots for Europe, Elisabeth Dieringer-Granza. 

According to press agency reports, the chair of La Sinistra in the European Parliament, Manon Aubry, is said to have called for the exhibition to be censored. In response, Procaccini stated that this shows that “once again, the suppression of ideas, like the suppression of life, remains a priority on the political agenda of the left.” On the contrary, “our agenda moves in the diametrically opposite direction—that of life, always,” he added. 

MEP (S&D), Alessandra Moretti, said she was “literally shocked” to see that an Italian MEP had organised “an exhibition against the right to abortion and against women’s freedom to self-determination and to make choices about their own bodies.” Moretti reiterated that “voluntary termination of pregnancy is a dramatic choice for every woman, perhaps the most painful of her life.” For this reason, “seeing an exhibition that tramples on our rights and freedoms within the European institutions is unacceptable, just as it is serious that it was authorised,” she added. According to the Venetian MP, the event stands in stark contrast to what happened yesterday when, during the opening of the plenary session, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, remembered “Emma Bonino and her historic battles, including the fundamental right to abortion and reproductive health.” The MEP emphasised that “the best way to honour her memory is not with mere applause, but through concrete actions;”  therefore, “this exhibition represents an open insult to her memory and a blow to the civil rights achievements of all women,” she concluded.

The right to abortion does not fall within the direct remit of the European Union, as health legislation is the responsibility of individual Member States. In Italy, a woman may request a voluntary termination of pregnancy within the first 90 days of gestation on health, economic, social, or family grounds. Since 1978, this procedure has been regulated by Law 194/78, which clearly sets out the procedures to be followed in the event of a request for termination of pregnancy. The primary aim of the law is the social protection of motherhood and the prevention of abortion through the network of family planning clinics, an aim to be pursued as part of policies to protect women’s health.