KDH Calls for Protection of EU's Values in Response to Abortion Initiative

Bratislava, 23 February (TASR) - The opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) has called on Slovak European Commissioner for Trade Maros Sefcovic, the government and political parties to stand up for the protection of subsidiarity, the sovereignty of EU-member states and the values on which the EU was founded, KDH MEP Miriam Lexmann told a press conference on Monday in response to an initiative allowing women to undergo abortions in other member states. According to Lexmann, the initiative's proposal to the European Commission (EC) is aimed at introducing a mechanism whereby women who cannot undergo an abortion in their own country could have access to one in another country with EU taxpayers' money. The EC is slated to decide on the proposal on Thursday (26 February). "We say no, and so we're asking the Slovak government, the Slovak commissioner and MEPs to prevent the setting up of a mechanism under which the EU will use taxpayers' money to pay women to break the law of their own country," said Lexmann. She added that the EU is meant to protect human life, human dignity and peace, as well as to create economic goods for its citizens. It's also meant to protect the sovereignty of member states and the values on which it was founded. "This includes the principle of subsidiarity, clearly establishing which issues fall under the exclusive powers of member states and where the EU has no powers. KDH wants to protect the values on which the EU was built," said Lexmann. According to her, health care and cultural-ethical issues fall under the powers of member states, meaning that the EU cannot decide on these matters. In September 2025, the EU announced that it would examine a petition signed by more than one million people demanding safe access to abortions for all women in Europe. Women's rights activists note that while the right to abortion has been liberalised in most EU-member states, it remains highly restricted in some countries, notably Malta and Poland. As a result, over 20 million women in the EU lack access to safe abortions. Rather than calling for changes to national laws, the petitioners want Brussels to set up a financial mechanism that will help liberal member states provide abortions to women from countries where such procedures aren't easily accessible. The minimum threshold required for the EC to deal with a petition is one million signatories. As the petition was officially submitted on 1 September 2025, the EC is supposed to issue a response outlining planned steps by 2 March 2026. Its response isn't legally binding however. jrg/df