Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-02-Speech-2-329"

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"Mr President, in recent days, I and my colleagues have been inundated with mails and faxes containing urgent calls to vote against Mrs Van Lancker’s report because it would be an invitation to legalise abortion throughout Europe. This is the result of an extremely disturbing false information campaign launched by the right, which must be firmly condemned. The report addresses the sensitive issue of sexual and reproductive health and rights, women’s reproductive health and the dissemination of contraceptive practices, it focuses at length on a policy of health and sexual education policy for young people, and, of course, it is also concerned with unwanted pregnancies and abortion. This issue is, however, addressed in the context of the recommendations made to the Member States and the candidate countries with the aim of safeguarding women’s reproductive health and rights. The rapporteur makes numerous recommendations regarding prevention. The governments of the Member States and the candidate countries are called upon to endeavour to implement a health and social policy which will reduce recourse to abortion, particularly through the establishment of a network of counselling and family planning services. The report proposes that impartial, scientific information should be provided on reproductive health, including the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. It stresses that interrupting pregnancies should not be promoted as a family planning method and recommends that, in order to protect women’s reproductive health and rights, abortion must be legal, safe and accessible to all. In any case, the experience of the countries which have legislation in place on the interruption of pregnancies reveals that fewer abortions take place if they do not have to be carried out illegally but can be performed in safe establishments under strict medical control without risks to health. In Italy, for example, the abortion rate fell by 40% between 1980 and 1998. Mrs Van Lancker does not undermine the principle of subsidiarity in this extremely balanced report. She does not suggest that the European institutions should take over the competences and responsibilities of the Member States, but recommends that they adopt a policy of prevention – sexual education – and reminds us all that sexuality and reproductive health are, first and foremost, women’s rights."@en1

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