Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-02-Speech-2-310"
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"en.20020702.14.2-310"2
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"Mr President, I should like to start by thanking Anne van Lancker, who has made a huge effort to bring about a consensus here in the House. As previous speakers have said, this is a very delicate subject which touches on the most intimate area of our citizens' lives. So exactly what is this report about? It is about the right that, at the end of the day, no one here in this House would wish to be deprived of. It is about the right of control over ones own body. Women cannot be denied this right, the less privileged in the European Union cannot be denied this right, the citizens who are to join the European Union cannot be denied this right. The Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities has, without any shadow of a doubt, recognised the primary competence of the Member States in safeguarding sexual and reproductive health and rights.
But Europe also has a huge responsibility as pioneers in the world, as we conveyed at the World Conference on Women in Beijing, when we defended the concept of the need to safeguard sexual health and reproductive rights. Mrs van Lancker has abided very closely by these specifications and has presented a whole host of best practices in her report, the most important being proper education on responsible sexual conduct, on which we need careful guidance by experts, with the Member States providing full coverage by professional advice centres. A gender-specific approach aimed at young people is needed and mutual respect and responsibility must be shown on sexual matters.
The Member States must ensure that girls who become pregnant are not excluded from education which, unfortunately, is what usually happens. There are pointers on this in the White Paper on Youth. We must offer a networked policy here, which is why the European Parliament and the Commission also have work to do.
We must take a closer look at the situation in the candidate countries, where little contraception is available at affordable prices and abortion is often used as a method of family planning. As the van Lancker report clearly states, we must prevent this. Abortion can never be the solution; we must prevent unwanted pregnancies per se. The sub-text is probably that it stops women from becoming independent and I am quite appalled at this campaign, which was attacked once again here in Parliament: with half truths, by questionable means, millions of women are being disconcerted by the assertion that terminating a pregnancy increases the risk of breast cancer. Half truths are being used to make millions of women insecure and deprive them of their rights. We will not stand for this any longer, which is why I hope that there will be a large majority in favour of Mrs Van Lancker's report tomorrow."@en1
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