Malta and Poland stand up to EU on abortion

Malta and Poland broke rank with the European Union (EU) on the question of abortion earlier this week, the pro-life group Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute said in its Friday Fax publication.

The dissension occurred at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) which convened it’s annual two-week meeting at UN headquarters in New York. The reaction of Malta and Poland happened after the EU tried to shift the meeting’s agenda to include the right to abortion.

On Thursday afternoon, the head of Malta’s mission to the UN, Ambassador Saviour F. Borg was quoted to have said that “Malta would like to clarify its position with respect to the language relating to sexual and reproductive health and rights in the [EU] statement. Malta firmly continues to maintain that any position taken or recommendations made regarding women’s empowerment and gender equality should not in any way create an obligation on any party to consider abortion as a legitimate form of reproductive health rights, services or commodities.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Radoslaw Mleczko, the Polish Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, told the gathering of UN Member States that Poland generally aligned itself with the EU but that any EU reference to sexual and reproductive health could not include abortion

(via Brussels Journal)